Abstract: Methods, systems, computer program products, and methods of doing business whereby document components are secured or controlled using “security containers” which encapsulate the components (and other component metadata). A “security container” encapsulates the component (i.e., content) that is to be controlled within a higher-level construct such as a compound document. The security container also contains rules for interacting with the encapsulated component, and one or more encryption keys usable for decrypting the component and rules for authorized requesters.

Abstract: A method, system, and computer program product for using biometrics on pervasive devices for purposes of mobile identification. A biometric device of the prior art is attached to, or incorporated within, a pervasive device. This augmented pervasive device may then be used for capturing biometric information from an arbitrary third party in an arbitrary location. The captured information is analyzed to determine the third party's identification, access rights, etc. as needed by a particular application. This solution capitalizes on the portability and functionality of the pervasive device, as well as its built-in communication capability, to provide an extremely flexible, powerful biometric identification technique at relatively low cost.

Abstract: A method to anticipate and prevent application non-conformance is disclosed. The method includes making available a configuration management database (CMDB) having configuration information of a plurality of system resources and dependency information of a plurality of applications related to the plurality of system resources. The method also includes making available a plurality of rules to establish a plurality of operating conditions that are statistically probable to cause a non-conformance of each system resource of the plurality of system resources, and combining each rule with the CMDB to determine the dependency of each application upon each operating condition. The method proceeds with performing a response action in response to determining that any of the operating conditions are such to cause a statistically probable non-conformance of any of the plurality of applications.

Abstract: A method for the autonomic management of autonomic systems can include monitoring a managed system and recommending a course of action to be performed in the managed system. It can be determined whether the recommended course of action has been performed by an administrator. Responsive to the determination, it further can be determined whether an outcome from the course of action comports with a predicted outcome. If so, a point count can be changed responsive to a further determination that the outcome from the course of action comports with the predicted outcome. Conversely, the point count can be oppositely changed responsive to a further determination that the outcome from the course of action does not comports with the predicted outcome. In any case, when the point count crosses a threshold value, the management of the managed system can be transitioned to an adaptive component.

Abstract: The present invention generally relates to a method, system and program product for distributing portal content processing. Specifically, a request for portal content is received on a surrogate system and then passed to a portal system. The portal system will obtain and aggregate a first type of the requested content, and then package the aggregated content into a response. The response will also include place holders that correspond to the remaining type of the requested content. The response will then be transmitted to the surrogate system, which will, based upon the place holders, obtain the remaining type of portal content. Once obtained, the remaining type of portal content will replace the place holders in the response, and the response will be rendered for the requesting portal user.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to managing service level guarantees for a Web service and provide a method, system and computer program product for Web service pricing in an on-demand environment. In one embodiment of the invention, an automated Web services pricing management method can be provided. The method can include loading an economic model for a Web service, deploying the Web service and measuring quality metrics for the Web service. Once quality metrics have been measured for the Web service, the economic model can be consulted to identify a penalty for the Web service commensurate with the measured quality metrics. Thereafter, the penalty can be established for the Web service.

Abstract: The present invention is a grid quorum system, method and apparatus. In a cluster of resources in a computing grid, a resource locking method can include acquiring a temporally limited lock on a grid service in the computing grid. Upon expiration of the temporally limited lock, a renewal of the temporally limited lock can be requested. Subsequently, the temporally limited lock can be renewed if a renewal has been granted by the grid service in response to the request. Notably, the renewing step can include determining whether the cluster has been partitioned into a plurality of sub-clusters. If the cluster has been partitioned, a parent sub-cluster can be identified and the temporally limited lock can be renewed only if a quorum exists in the parent sub-cluster.

Abstract: A grid coordinator which has been configured for autonomic failover can include a monitor communicatively linked to a multiplicity of grid hosts in a services grid. A metrics store can be coupled to the monitor and configured to store service metrics for individual service instances in the grid hosts. Optimization logic can be programmed to compute a best-fit between metrics stored for a set of service instances in a failed grid host, and platform metrics determined for a proposed replacement grid host. Finally, a failover processor can be coupled to the monitor and the optimization logic and communicatively linked to the grid hosts to create a new set of service instances in the proposed replacement grid host to replace the set of service instances in the failed grid host according to the best-fit in the optimization logic.

Abstract: An adaptive data replication and caching system configured to enforce service terms at the network edge. Service terms can include, but are not limited to established quality of service (QoS) terms, as well as the terms of a service level agreement (SLA). This system can include a data caching system configured to cache application data in a data store and to satisfy queries for application data from the cache. The system also can include a data replication system configured to replicate application data in the data store and to satisfy queries for application data against the replicated application data. Finally, the adaptive data replication and caching system can include a configurator for configuring portions of the data store for exclusive use by the data caching system and the data replication system based upon the service terms.

Abstract: An adaptive data replication and caching system configured for deployment at the network edge. This system can include a data caching system configured to cache application data in a data store and to satisfy queries for application data from the cache. The system also can include a data replication system configured to replicate application data in the data store and to satisfy queries for application data against the replicated application data. Finally, the adaptive data replication and caching system can include a configurator for configuring portions of the data store for exclusive use by the data caching system and the data replication system.

Abstract: Techniques are disclosed for programmatically allocating memory among competing services in a distributed computing environment. Characteristics of web request streams and formulas for cache hit rates and client response times are used to create an objective function for memory allocation, such that maximum benefit can be realized from the memory allocations. When a particular service is allocated more memory, it can store more of its objects in cache, which improves client response time. Optionally, information from service level agreements may be used as input to the memory allocation computations.

Abstract: A flexible data mirroring system and method are adapted for use in a data processing system having first and second data storage devices. Upon receiving notification of a file update to be written to the first data storage device a mirror mode and mirror event associated with the updated file are determined from mirror information that has been provisioned on a per-file, per-directory or per-volume, etc. basis. The file update is mirrored to the second data storage device according to the provisioned mirror mode and mirror event. If the mirror mode is continuous, the mirror operation proceeds immediately. If the mirror mode is discrete, the file update is noted and the mirror operation proceeds following occurrence of the file's mirror event.

Abstract: A method and system for creating service instances in a computing grid. The method can include scheduling a service in the computing grid to process at least a portion of a requested transaction. At least one additional service related to the scheduled service can be identified, and a load condition can be assessed in the at least one additional service related to the scheduled service. A new instance of the at least one additional service can be created if the load condition exceeds a threshold load. In this way, an enhanced capacity for processing transactions can be established in the related services in advance of a predicted increase in load in the grid.

Abstract: Methods, systems and computer program products are provided for determining if a packet has a spoofed source Internet Protocol (IP) address. A source media access control (MAC) address of the packet and the source IP address are evaluated to determine if the source IP address of the packet has been bound to the source MAC address at a source device of the packet. The packet is determined to have a spoofed source IP address if the evaluation indicates that the source IP address is not bound to the source MAC address. Such an evaluation may be made for packets having a subnet of the source IP address which matches a subnet from which the packet originated.

Abstract: A method for managing multi-tier SLA relationships. The method can include first computing costs of utilizing edge server resources in a CDN, costs of dedicating content host resources in a content host in lieu of the utilization, and prospective revenues which can be generated by the content host providing services based on the resources to content consumers. Minimum QoS levels can be identified which must be maintained when providing the services to the content consumers according to QoS terms in established SLAs between the content host and individual ones of the content consumers. Finally, a new SLA can be established between the content host and the CDN. Importantly, the new SLA can include QoS terms for selectively allocating resources in the CDN. Moreover, the QoS terms can optimize revenues generated by the content host providing services based on the selective allocation of resources and the computed costs.

Abstract: Techniques are disclosed for storing content in distributed computing environments to reduce storage overhead and improve efficiency and/or speed of accessing and delivering the stored content. A content management system (or other authoring system, such as a text editor) supplies hints about dependencies among objects or files, such as which objects are embedded into a web page and which objects are referenced by the web page. These hints are then used when deploying the corresponding files on a storage system, such that the files which are likely to be retrieved together are (preferably) stored together. Optionally, run-time observations by a web server may be used as input to this process to determine how best to store content during a subsequent redeployment.

Abstract: Techniques are disclosed for addressing the name space mismatch between content caching systems (which use Uniform Resource Locators, or “URLs”) and content servers (which use file and path names). A file name-to-URL mapping is created for use by content caching systems, and data in protocol response messages (and optionally in protocol request messages) is augmented to transmit information for use in creating this mapping, enabling a content caching system to automatically and dynamically populate its file name-to-URL mapping. By having the file name available, the caching system can now respond to content management messages which identify the cached content by only the content's associated file name.

Abstract: A cache management method and system for storing dynamic contents such as web pages. In a computing environment, a server maintains a cache for temporarily storing dynamic pages. Each of the cached pages is associated with resource information indicating a level of resources used to create the cached page. A newly created page replaces one of the cached pages in the cache if it is less expensive to recreate that cached page than to recreate the newly created page based on the resource information.

Abstract: A method, system, computer program product, and method of doing business by providing a secure integrated device (such as a pervasive computing device) for which operating capabilities can be dynamically yet securely selected (including, but not limited to, pluggable connection of input/output devices and/or application processors that provide selected functions). Each input/output (I/O) device and application processor to be used is plugged in to a bus of a security core, and authenticates itself to the security core using public key infrastructure techniques, thereby creating a secure multi-function device. All of the multi-function device's input and output interactions with its environment necessarily traverse an I/O bus under the sole control of the security core. The only communication path between an application processor and the external environment (such as an I/O device) is through an application processor bus, which is likewise under control of the security core.

Abstract: A method and system for processing Service Level Agreement (SLA) terms in a caching component in a storage system. The method can include monitoring cache performance for groups of data in the cache, each the group having a corresponding SLA. Overfunded SLAs can be identified according to the monitored cache performance. In consequence, an entry can be evicted from among one of the groups which correspond to an identified one of the overfunded SLAs. In one aspect of the present invention, the most overfunded SLA can be identified, and an entry can be evicted from among the group which corresponds to the most overfunded SLA.