Patent ID: 8543615

Claim:
In a computer system that includes an information management server configured to orchestrate provision of customized services to a plurality of data objects residing in the computer system, a method for locating a service provider that provides the customized services to the plurality of data objects, the method comprising: evaluating each of the plurality of data objects individually so as to identify, at the data object level, a respective service level objective for each of the plurality of data objects, each service level objective defining a service and a level of the service suggested for the associated data object, wherein the service level objective customizes the services for the associated data object at the individual data object level; identifying a plurality of service providers, where each of the service providers is operable to provide services to one or more data objects at various levels of the services; sending an information management service request to each of the plurality of different service providers, the information management service request containing a plurality of service level objectives associated with the plurality of data objects; receiving a response from each of the service providers, wherein each response identifies which of the plurality of service level objectives the corresponding service provider is capable of providing; and selecting one or more of the service providers from the plurality of service providers based on the received responses by determining which service providers can best satisfy the plurality of service level objectives based on a measure of confidence included in each of the received responses that reflects a degree of ability to provide the service level objectives, wherein the selected service providers provide services to each data object based on the service level objectives of each data object, wherein each of the data objects receives customized services according to its service level objectives from one or more of the selected service providers.