Method of customizing a standardized IT policy
First Claim
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1. A method of providing a policy to configure devices associated with a group of users, the policy being customizable on a per-user basis and constituting a set of rules that limit functionality of at least one application residing on the devices, the method comprising:
- storing policy rules that are applicable to all users within the group of users;
responsive to detecting a change in the policy rules, determining whether there exists at least one user within the group of users for which per-user policy rules are stored, the per-user policy rules being applicable to the at least one user and set separately from the policy rules; and
in the event that the at least one user exists;
generating user policy data for the at least one user by merging the policy rules and the per-user policy rules;
determining whether a difference exists between the user policy data and stored last policy data that was previously sent to a device associated with the at least one user; and
in the event that the difference exists, sending the user policy data to the device for limiting the functionality of the at least one application.
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Abstract
A system and method are described herein for standardizing an IT policy that is used to configure devices operating on a network. An IT policy can be generated that applies to a group of users or to one or more special users without having to define and store a new IT policy for each special user. This can be achieved by specifying global and per-user IT policy rules and merging these rules as needed to produce IT policy data.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A method of providing a policy to configure devices associated with a group of users, the policy being customizable on a per-user basis and constituting a set of rules that limit functionality of at least one application residing on the devices, the method comprising:
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storing policy rules that are applicable to all users within the group of users; responsive to detecting a change in the policy rules, determining whether there exists at least one user within the group of users for which per-user policy rules are stored, the per-user policy rules being applicable to the at least one user and set separately from the policy rules; and in the event that the at least one user exists; generating user policy data for the at least one user by merging the policy rules and the per-user policy rules; determining whether a difference exists between the user policy data and stored last policy data that was previously sent to a device associated with the at least one user; and in the event that the difference exists, sending the user policy data to the device for limiting the functionality of the at least one application. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodying program code executable by a processor for providing a policy to configure devices associated with a group of users, the policy being customizable on a per-user basis and constituting a set of rules that limit functionality of at least one application residing on the devices, the code comprising instructions for:
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storing policy rules that are applicable to all users within the group of users; responsive to detecting a change in the policy rules, determining whether there exists at least one user within the group of users for which per-user policy rules are stored, the per-user policy rules being applicable to the at least one user and set separately from the policy rules; and in the event that the at least one user exists; generating user policy data for the at least one user by merging the policy rules and the per-user policy rules; determining whether a difference exists between the user policy data and stored last policy data that was previously sent to a device associated with the at least one user; and in the event that the difference exists, sending the user policy data to the device for limiting the functionality of the at least one application. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12)
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13. A server for providing a policy to configure devices associated with a group of users, the policy being customizable on a per-user basis and constituting a set of rules that limit functionality of at least one application residing on the devices, the server comprising:
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a processor adapted to generate policy data; a network interface coupled to the processor and being adapted to allow the server to communicate with the network; and a memory unit coupled to the processor, the memory unit being adapted to store applications and data related to the policy, wherein, the processor is configured; to store policy rules that are applicable to all users within the group of users; responsive to detecting a change in the policy rules, to determine whether there exists at least one user within the group of users for which per-user policy rules are stored, the per-user policy rules being applicable to the at least one user and set separately from the policy rules; and in the event that the at least one user exists; to generate user policy data for the at least one user by merging the policy rules and the per-user policy rules; to determine whether a difference exists between the user policy data and stored last policy data that was previously sent to a device associated with the at least one user; and in the event that the difference exists, to send the user policy data to the device for limiting the functionality of the at least one application. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification