Patent ID: 7149738

Claim:
A system operable for managing resources using a plurality of policies, the policies being stored in a policy database, the policies being defined by events, conditions, and actions, wherein said events comprise temporal and composite events, the system comprising: a first device operable for enabling a user to define, modify, delete and visualize the policies in an intuitive manner; a second device operable for deploying the policies defined by the user, the second device comprising: a converter operable for converting policies defined in an intuitive manner into a meta-language format that can be directly stored in the policy database; a third device operable for executing the deployed policies on an occurrence of an event; and an interface operable for interfacing the resources with the first device, the second device, and the third device, and wherein said interface is further operable for viewing, updating, deleting, inserting records, and detecting changes in said policy database, wherein said policies comprise only conflict-free policies, whereby a conflicting policy comprises defining conflicting actions on the occurrence of a same event and condition occurring, wherein meta-policies are used to disallow a simultaneous execution of multiple conflicting policies, wherein said policies comprise access control policies relating to specifying access control on data and accessing said resources, and wherein said access control policies are defined at each of an event, condition, and action level.