Patent ID: 8336079

Claim:
A method for maintaining administrative control over logical assets in a virtualized ecosystem, comprising: in response to an attempt to manipulate a subject logical asset of the virtualized ecosystem, evaluating, by a computer-based control system communicatively coupled to an underlying physical, computer-based environment abstracted by the virtualized ecosystem, control information for the subject logical asset of the virtualized ecosystem and of an entity attempting administrative manipulation of the subject local asset, wherein the control information includes contextual, behavioral and environmental attributes of the subject logical asset; deriving from the evaluation, contextualized properties of the subject logical asset, wherein deriving the contextualized properties comprises determining whether (i) the entity attempting the administrative manipulation of the logical asset has sufficient rights to perform such manipulation, and (ii) the attempted administrative manipulation of the subject logical asset will result in a permissible communicative coupling with other logical assets of the virtualized ecosystem or permissible interaction between the subject logical asset and the underlying physical, computer-based environment, thereby determining whether the administrative manipulation is permissible; and enforcing, by the control system and according to the determination, controls for the subject logical asset to permit or deny the attempted administrative manipulation.