Patent ID: 7506338
Filing Date: 2009-03-17
Classification: G06F,H04L,H04N

Abstract:
1. A method comprising steps of: A) preparing on a preparation machine an installed image comprising multiple semantic levels of an application and its non-operating system dependencies; B) virtualizing the installed image on an execution machine to produce a virtually installed image by using a hierarchy of selective virtualizers, wherein the virtualizing is selective such that not all operations of the executing software at any particular level are virtualized; C) storing the shards in an associative backing store; D) executing the software assets on the execution machine as if said software assets were installed on said execution machine, wherein the executing step comprises: E) integrating the execution of the software assets with the virtualizers, such that execution information can be collected efficiently about execution problems on the execution machine; and F) integrating the execution of the software assets with the associative backing store, such that software information about said software assets and their versions can be collected.