Patent ID: 7584278

Claim:
A method of performing a management task, the task modifying information associated with one or more back-end resources in a distributed network, the method comprising: receiving information from a first back-end resource related to a first task, the first task for a first managed object of a predetermined object type, wherein the first managed object has associated attributes, and wherein each attribute has a data field and a value, and wherein the information received from the first back-end resource indicates whether the first back-end resource is used to perform the management task; receiving information from a second back-end resource related to a second task, the second task associated with the first managed object, wherein the information received from the second back-end resource indicates whether the second back-end resource is used to perform the management task; storing in a memory the information received from the second back-end resource in association with the information received from the first back-end resource; receiving a request to perform the management task in relation to the first managed object; determining, based on the stored information, which of the first back-end resource and the second back-end resource to call in response to the request; and sending a task request to the determined resource to perform the management task on the first managed object, wherein the sending occurs after receiving information from the first back-end resource and receiving information from the second back-end resource.