Patent ID: 8705094

Claim:
A device management system, comprising: a managed device; and a device management apparatus connected to the managed device via a data communication channel and managing the managed device, wherein the device management apparatus includes an information acquisition unit transmitting an information acquisition request to request device information from the managed device; wherein the managed device includes a storage unit, a first information source managing device information that is available via a communication protocol, a second information source managing device information that is not available via the communication protocol, and an information providing unit providing the requested device information to the information acquisition unit in response to the information acquisition request and including a receiving unit receiving the information acquisition request from the information acquisition unit, a determining unit determining whether an up-to-date version of the requested device information is stored in a storage area of the storage unit, an obtaining unit obtaining the up-to-date version of the requested device information from the first information source or the second information source if the determining unit determines that the up-to-date version of the requested device information is not stored in the storage area of the storage unit, and a transmitting unit transmitting the up-to-date version of the requested device information to the information acquisition unit of the device management apparatus.