Abstract: A contract-based mobile software agent (MSA) arrangement for use between a user and host computer to permit a defined, secure and accountable access of the host computer by a user. The agent message (AM) propagated by the host (or alternatively provided on the host itself) preferably includes terms related to the remote host access. The AM also preferably includes enhanced AM code that provides sufficient intelligence for the AM to negotiate terms with complementary software at the host machine.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for distributing computer resources in a network environment. A network of computer systems is partitioned into at least one computing system partition, and is configured into at least one redundancy group. The computing system partitions include applications, computing system nodes, and copies of a database schema. The copies of the database schema are replicated at each computing system partition within a network. The computing system partition manages interactions between the instances, the computing system nodes, and the copy of the database schema within the respective computing system partition. The redundancy group comprises at least one computing system and at a plurality of computing system partitions, and manages the replication of the database schema within the computing system and computing system partitions.