Patent ID: 8478858

Claim:
A content delivery network (CDN) having a plurality of geographically distributed points of presence (POPs) for processing content objects, the CDN comprising: a metadata directory comprising metadata characterizing the content objects, requesters of the content objects and/or providers of the content objects; and a policy reconciliation service (PRS) coupled to the metadata directory, the PRS comprising: a policy store comprising a plurality of policies, each policy defining a process to perform on a content object, and each policy including an applicability criteria and a storage disposition; a policy manager coupled to the policy store, wherein the policy manager identifies a first policy having a first applicability criteria and a second policy having a second applicability criteria from the plurality of policies applicable to a first content object based on metadata in the metadata directory associated with the content object, wherein the first applicability criteria indicates that the first policy is applicable to the entire CDN and the second applicability criteria indicates that the second policy is applicable to a point-of-presence (POP) within the CDN; a policy mapping store comprising a hierarchy, the hierarchy identifying a priority of one of the first policy and the second policy over the other policy of the first policy and the second policy, wherein the hierarchy is based at least in part on the first applicability criteria and the second applicability criteria; and a policy compiler coupled to the policy mapping store, wherein the policy compiler identifies a resolution of a conflict of the first policy and the second policy based on the hierarchy.