Patent ID: 7069581

Claim:
A method to facilitate cross-domain push deployment of software in an enterprise environment, comprising: receiving a machine name and a domain name at a server, wherein the machine name and the domain name are associated with a client; associating the machine name with the domain name, wherein associating the machine name with the domain name establishes what software to deploy to the client, by creating an entry in a hierarchical directory structure based on the machine name and the domain name, so that the deployed software is selected based on a location of the client in the hierarchical directory structure; accepting a user name and a password at the server, wherein the user name and the password are used to gain access to the client; authenticating the server to the client using the user name and password; pushing a software package to the client from the server; and allowing an agent to download a software policy from the server to the client, wherein the agent enforces the software policy; wherein pushing the software package to the client includes; copying the software package to the client from the server; installing the agent from the software package onto the client; and executing the agent on the client; wherein the software package includes a self-extracting header and a compressed installation package; wherein the self-extracting header is an executable program that opens the compressed installation program upon execution and installs a payload of the compressed installation package; wherein the payload is capable of downloading software and security policies from the server and enforcing the security policies.