Patent ID: 8234223
Filing Date: 2012-07-31
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method for determining the cost of an asset in an environment, where the environment is modeled using a data model comprising a set of components and relationships representing logical or physical entities in an environment and the relationships between these entities, wherein each of the components and relationships in the data model has a type and a set of properties wherein each of the values for the type and set of properties of each of the components and relationships in the data model are based on the entities in the environment, each relationship represents a directional dependency associated with a first component and a second component and the data model is stored using a table schema comprising a component table for storing each component and a relationship table for storing each relationship, comprising: I. identifying an entity in the environment for which a cost is to be determined; II. calculating, by a computing device, the cost for the entity using a first component of the data model representing the entity, where calculating the cost for the entity comprises: III. calculating a cost for each of the dependency chains, wherein calculating a cost for a dependency chains comprises: IV. summing the costs for each of the dependency chains.