Patent ID: 8453256

Claim:
A processor-implemented method comprising: receiving a request from a user, wherein the request includes a user identifier, a system identifier, and a requested action, and wherein the requested action comprises a command to be executed on a system corresponding to the system identifier; retrieving a current timestamp corresponding to a computer system clock; retrieving one or more scheduled change periods from a data store accessible by the processor, wherein the retrieved scheduled change periods correspond to the system identifier included in the request; comparing the retrieved current timestamp to the retrieved scheduled change periods; determining if the command included in the change request is included in a predetermined list of allowed commands associated with the user identifier included in the request; allowing the requested action based on the comparing and determining revealing that the current timestamp is within at least one of the retrieved scheduled change periods and that the command included in the requested action is included in the predetermined list of allowed commands associated with the user identifier included in the request; denying the requested action based on the comparing and determining revealing that the command included in the requested action is not included in the predetermined list of allowed commands associated with the user identifier included in the request; and denying the requested action based on the comparison revealing that the current timestamp is not within at least one of the scheduled change periods.