Policy Consolidation via Priority Ranking for Multi-Group Items
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing infrastructure and operations management systems face difficulties in assigning appropriate policies to items that belong to multiple groups, leading to cumbersome and resource-intensive manual overrides, as they lack efficient methods for handling complex group memberships and prioritizing settings across multiple policy types.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that select an item, determine its associated groups, rank group policies based on predetermined priorities, and generate a consolidated item policy by prioritizing settings from multiple group policies, allowing for clear assignment and management of policies for items associated with multiple groups.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If default policies are manually overridden for individual items to handle exceptions, then policy accuracy for specific items is improved, but system complexity and manual workload increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments policy management into hierarchical levels: global default policies, group-specific policies, and item-specific overrides. This segmentation allows the system to handle complexity at appropriate levels rather than requiring manual overrides at the item level for every exception, reducing both manual workload and system complexity while maintaining policy accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary action by pre-defining group policies that automatically apply to items within those groups. This preliminary configuration eliminates the need for manual overrides in common cases, reducing manual workload. The system only requires item-specific overrides when truly necessary, thereby maintaining policy accuracy without proportionally increasing system complexity.
2Ease of operation
If policies are defined based on item types or groups to reduce manual work, then ease of operation is improved, but the system fails to assign appropriate policies to items belonging to multiple groups
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism - a priority-based policy resolution system - that mediates between multiple group policies when an item belongs to multiple groups. This intermediary automatically resolves conflicts by selecting policies based on predefined priorities, maintaining reliability of policy assignment while preserving the ease of operation benefits from group-based policy definition.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter of policy assignment from simple group matching to priority-based selection. By introducing a priority parameter to group policies, the system can reliably assign policies to multi-group items based on the highest priority matching group, thereby maintaining both ease of operation and policy assignment accuracy.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the system monitors an increasing number of diverse items, then system coverage and versatility are improved, but the difficulty of guaranteeing appropriate default policies increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements universality through group-based policy definition, where a single group policy can serve multiple items across different types. This multi-functional approach allows the system to maintain appropriate default policies for diverse items without increasing policy guarantee difficulty, as the group abstraction handles the complexity of diversity while maintaining consistent policy application.
4Manufacturing precision
If manual overrides are used extensively to handle complex group memberships, then policy accuracy is improved, but resource consumption and time requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service through automated policy assignment based on group membership and priority rules. The system automatically determines which group policy applies to each item without requiring manual intervention, thereby maintaining policy accuracy while dramatically reducing the time required for policy management. Manual overrides are only needed in exceptional cases rather than routinely.
Data Source
AI summary
A method includes selecting an item. The method further includes determining a plurality of groups. The item is associated with each of the plurality of groups. The method includes determining a plurality of group policies for a policy type. Each of the plurality of group policies corresponds to one of the plurality of groups and comprises a setting. The method includes ranking the plurality of group policies based on a first predetermined priority. The method further includes generating a consolidated item policy. The consolidated item policy includes the settings in the plurality of group policies prioritized based on the ranking of the plurality of group policies. The method further includes assigning the consolidated item policy to the item.