Patent ID: 8745734

Claim:
A system for managing a virtual machine network comprising: an interface component for obtaining requests, the requests corresponding to a request for execution of a virtual machine network activity; a virtual machine network manager configured to generate one or more virtual machine network assessment profiles; a memory component for storing the one or more virtual machine network assessment profiles, wherein each virtual machine network assessment profile comprises at least one assessment preference associated with a security assessment event, and wherein each assessment preference corresponds to at least one of an assessment timing, an assessment type, and an assessment extent; and a virtual machine assessment manager operable to: dynamically determine a security assessment event based at least in part on at least one of a detected activity associated with the execution of the virtual machine network and receipt of a request for execution of a virtual machine network activity from the interface component; identify an assessment profile generated by the virtual machine network manager for the dynamically determined security assessment event; determine an assessment preference for the virtual machine network, the assessment preference specified in the assessment profile; determine, based at least in part on the determined assessment preference, a time at which to cause performance of a security assessment in relation to the execution of a virtual machine network activity associated with the security assessment event; and cause the performance of a security assessment on the virtual machine network at the time determined.