Patent ID: 8266630

Claim:
A method of delegating processing functions from a server to a corresponding specialized appliance in an enterprise computing environment, wherein the appliance comprises a Service Oriented Architecture middleware appliance and the server comprises a Common Event Infrastructure server, the method comprising: specifying at least one XML function for front-process offloading from the server to the corresponding appliance, wherein the appliance is located on an inbound network path to the server and is configured to intercept inbound messages which are destined for the server, the inbound messages being pushed from at least one message generator towards the server on the inbound network path, each of the at least one message generator operating at a device that is distinct from the server and from the appliance; communicating at least one management directive from the server to the appliance, in response to dynamic run-time conditions evaluated by the server, the at least one management directive informing the appliance to configure itself to perform at least one of the at least one specified XML function on the intercepted messages, the communicated management directive for a particular specified XML function further specifying requirements that are dynamically specified, by the server, for implementing by the particular specified XML function when performed at the appliance, wherein the communicating comprises dynamically issuing, from the server to the appliance, at least one Simple Object Access Protocol based distributed management directive to instruct the appliance as to how the intercepted messages are to be managed; and communicating instructions from the server to the appliance to cause the appliance to dynamically augment intercepted messages by inserting intermediate processing information therein, based upon at least one of the at least one XML function performed at the appliance, as the intercepted messages pass through the appliance towards the server on the inbound network path.