Patent ID: 8775944

Claim:
A method for interactive evaluation of policies using a graphical user interface to display the effect of alterable access policies on clients and resources, the method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving, by a policy engine, a request to access at least one resource stored on a server from a client; (b) transmitting, by the policy engine, a collection agent to the client in response to receiving the request; (c) receiving, by the policy engine from the collection agent executing on the client, an identification of a characteristic of at least one client requesting access to the at least one resource; (d) enumerating an identification of at least one resource; (e) applying at least one policy including a first policy associated with the at least one resource to the at least one client requesting access to the at least one resource, responsive to the received identification of the characteristic of the at least one client; (f) displaying data on the graphical user interface wherein the graphical user interface includes: an interactive element that receives input from a user that alters settings in the first policy; a description of the identified characteristic of at least one client received from the collection agent executing on the client; and a description of the results of applying the first policy including whether the client may access the requested resource; (g) receiving the input altering the settings of the first policy using the interactive element; (h) simulating an application of the altered first policy producing an output comprising at least one description of a setting that resulted in denial of access to the requested resource in the case that the requested resource is denied, the description of the setting comprising a summary indicating how the altered first policy produced the result; and (i) displaying the output of the simulation including the description of the summary indicating how the altered first policy produced the result in the graphical user interface.