Patent ID: 8615577

Claim:
A content delivery network (CDN) having a plurality of geographically distributed points of presence (POPs) for processing content objects with a plurality of resources, the CDN comprising: a landing pad to receive a content object from a client; one or more databases comprising a list of the plurality of resources, each of the plurality of resources being associated with one or more tags, each tag indicating a characteristic of the associated resource; and a policy reconciliation service (PRS) for maintaining and processing policies, the PRS being coupled to the one or more databases, the PRS comprising: a policy store comprising a plurality of policies, each of the plurality of policies defining specific processing of content objects, the plurality of policies including a first policy and a second policy, wherein each of the first policy and the second policy comprises an applicability parameter indicating criteria that a content object must satisfy in order for the content object to be processed in accordance with the respective first or second policy, the criteria indicated in the first policy's applicability parameter being different from the criteria indicated in the second policy's applicability parameter, wherein the first policy comprises a disposition parameter indicating criteria that a resource must satisfy in order for the resource to effect the first policy, and wherein the first policy comprises one or more mutators, each mutator comprising a template for inclusion of an address of a resource and/or a location of a received content object; and a policy manager configured to: determine that the first policy is applicable to the received content object and that the second policy is not applicable to the received content object, the determination being based on the first policy's criteria and metadata related to the received content object, a requester of the received content object and/or a provider of the received content object at the CDN; and identify a resource of the plurality of resources for effecting the first policy based on the disposition parameter and a tag associated with the first policy.