Patent ID: 8756318

Claim:
At a computer system, the computer system having a processor and system memory, the computer system including a local group distribution manager, the local group distribution manager managing software distributions to a distribution group of assigned devices, a method for controlling a software distribution to a plurality of devices, the method comprising: for each device in the plurality of devices, receiving an assignment that the device is assigned to the distribution group; receiving an indication that a software distribution is to be deployed from a distribution server to the distribution group, the software distribution also being deployed to one or more other distribution groups of devices; accessing a distribution policy, the distribution policy defining the behavior of the local group distribution manager for deploying software distributions to the distribution group, including defining time-based resource restrictions applicable to deploying software distributions from the distribution server to the plurality of devices; accessing date/time information; determining applicable resource restrictions for deploying the software distribution to a subset of the distribution group based on the accessed date/time information; deploying the software distribution from the distribution server to the subset of the distribution group in accordance with the applicable resource restrictions, including allocating one or more of: bandwidth capacity and server capacity for the subset of the distribution group so as to control resource consumption associated with the distribution server, and subsequent to determining applicable resource restrictions for deploying the software distribution based on the accessed date/time information: accessing second date/time information, the second date/time information including at least a time of day for a geographic location; adjusting applicable resource restrictions for deploying the software distribution based on the accessed second date/time information, including the at least a time of day for a geographic region; and deploying the software distribution from the distribution server to an adjusted subset of the distribution group by deploying the software distribution in accordance with the adjusted applicable resource restrictions.