Patent ID: 8150961

Claim:
A method for updating distributed inventory services that enumerate computing assets within a computer network, comprising: scanning a first portion of a network to inventory computing assets within the first portion of the network; compiling a first inventory scan file that reflects at least one computing asset within the first portion of the network, wherein after an initial scan, the first inventory scan file includes only incremental data about changes in the software or hardware configuration of the computing assets since a last scan was performed; updating a first inventory service running on a first server based on the first inventory scan file; identifying an address of a second server running a second inventory service, the first and second server each managing one or more computing assets; transmitting the first inventory scan file to the second server; receiving, by the first server, a second inventory scan file from the second server, the second inventory scan file being compiled to reflect a second computing asset within a second portion of the network, wherein the second inventory scan file includes only incremental data about changes in the software or hardware configuration of the second computing asset since a last scan was performed; and updating the first inventory service on the first server based on the second inventory scan file, wherein the first and second servers have selective updating to store specific data types from the first and second scan files, wherein a first data type is stored on the first server and a second data type is stored on the second server, wherein the first server receives the second data type from either the first scan file or the second scan file but does not store the second data type, and wherein the second server receives the first data type from either the first scan file or the second scan file but does not store the first data type, wherein at least one of the first and second inventory services comprises a database management system created specifically for inventory services to enable specialized inventory data gathering, wherein the specialized inventory data gathering technique comprises a breadcrumb feature that identifies which server is associated with a particular computing asset, and further comprises a hashing function that groups computing assets according to the server which is associated with each asset.