A proxy server for a managed network, configured to: perform a discovery process to identify configuration items representing one or more computing devices configured to execute one or more applications in the managed network; determine that a payload of the configuration items to be sent to one or more server devices exceeds a threshold quantity of configuration items; in a case that the payload of the configuration items exceeds the threshold quantity of configuration items, separately transmit, to the one or more server devices, at least a portion of the payload of the configuration items, wherein each portion is associated with a sub-graph of a plurality of overlapping sub-graphs (614, 616, 618) of a graph, wherein the proxy server is configured to determine the overlapping sub-graphs (614, 616, 618) by: generating the graph and representing the configuration items as nodes of the graph interconnected by unidirectional edges that represent respective associations between pairs of the configuration items to which they connect, classifying the respective associations as either weak associations that represent non-dependency relationships between a respective pair of nodes or as strong associations that represent dependency relationships between respective pairs of nodes; and dividing the graph into the plurality of overlapping sub-graphs (614, 616, 618) based on the respective associations represented by the unidirectional edges. perform a discovery process to identify configuration items representing one or more computing devices configured to execute one or more applications in the managed network; determine that a payload of the configuration items to be sent to one or more server devices exceeds a threshold quantity of configuration items; in a case that the payload of the configuration items exceeds the threshold quantity of configuration items, separately transmit, to the one or more server devices, at least a portion of the payload of the configuration items, wherein each portion is associated with a sub-graph of a plurality of overlapping sub-graphs (614, 616, 618) of a graph, wherein the proxy server is configured to determine the overlapping sub-graphs (614, 616, 618) by: generating the graph and representing the configuration items as nodes of the graph interconnected by unidirectional edges that represent respective associations between pairs of the configuration items to which they connect, classifying the respective associations as either weak associations that represent non-dependency relationships between a respective pair of nodes or as strong associations that represent dependency relationships between respective pairs of nodes; and dividing the graph into the plurality of overlapping sub-graphs (614, 616, 618) based on the respective associations represented by the unidirectional edges. generating the graph and representing the configuration items as nodes of the graph interconnected by unidirectional edges that represent respective associations between pairs of the configuration items to which they connect, classifying the respective associations as either weak associations that represent non-dependency relationships between a respective pair of nodes or as strong associations that represent dependency relationships between respective pairs of nodes; and dividing the graph into the plurality of overlapping sub-graphs (614, 616, 618) based on the respective associations represented by the unidirectional edges.