Patent ID: 8838777

Claim:
A web service management system that automatically manages at least one web service with one or more associated policies, comprising: a computer; a memory; at least one web service; a service intermediary operatively connected to the web service to operate at least one policy with the web service, wherein the service intermediary includes a classification table in the memory of the computer for storing the policies that are to be run for a plurality of consumers of the web service, and wherein the at least one policy is used to generate metrics for enforcing service level agreements when run in the web service; and a management agent, implemented in the computer, that manages the service level agreements that are agreed between a service provider providing the web service and the plurality of consumers; wherein the management agent includes a policy decision data store, residing in the memory of the computer, that relates policies of the web service and at least one query for querying semantic contracts for terms related to the respective policies, wherein the semantic contracts are generated by converting the service level agreements from an XML based representation to an ontological representation that is used to define semantics underlying the service level agreements; and, wherein the management agent runs the at least one query against a semantic contract for a consumer to determine which associated policies are to be run for the consumer corresponding to the web service, and wherein the management agent sends a message to the service intermediary which uses the message to automatically update the classification table with the determined associated policies that are to be run for the consumer.