Patent ID: 8463902

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by a device, a work flow, which when executed, causes at least one of an ingestion of content, a transformation of the content, or a distribution of the content, in accordance with a customer order, wherein the work flow includes one or more work unit tasks for performing the at least one of ingestion, transformation, or distribution of the content; retrieving, by the device, work unit task information pertaining to one of the one or more work unit tasks, wherein the work unit task information includes a work unit definition that specifies which of the one or more other work unit tasks are capable of being at least one of an input to the one of the one or more work unit tasks or an output for the one of the one or more work unit tasks and work unit task connector parameters that specify a type of input content and a type of output content for the one of the one or more work unit tasks; sending, by the device, the work unit task information to one or more adapters for translation of the work unit task information; identifying, by the device, one or more network elements to execute the one of the one or more work unit tasks based on the work unit task information; translating, by the device, the work unit task information from a format used by one or more devices to another format that is used by the one or more network elements; sending, by the device, the translated work unit task information to the one or more network elements; and receiving, by the device, a work unit task completion message from the one or more network elements that indicates that the one of the one or more work unit tasks is completed.