Patent ID: 8127045

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving, using one or more processing units, a request for a dynamically configured network connection at a core module, wherein the request is initiated by a software component action that requires network access, wherein a software component accesses the network using a network access operation selected from one or more network access operations specific to that software component, wherein the request includes information specific to the software component action including a selected network access operation, wherein the core module transmits the request to a system module, and wherein the software component, the core module, and the system module are within a single computing system; using, using the one or more processing units, the system module to analyze the information specific to the software component action under current system conditions including system status data, system characteristic data, and historical data, wherein the analysis is used to determine whether a dynamically configurable network connection may be allowed; and making, using the one or more processing units, a determination whether to allow a dynamically configurable network connection, wherein when a dynamically configurable network connection is allowed, the system module uses the analysis to automatically determine a connection type, the connection type is initiated, and the dynamically configurable network connection is available to the software component, and wherein when the dynamically configurable network connection is a VPN connection and the software component is an electronic mail application, then a fetch operation is only performed when manually requested.