Patent ID: 8732692

Claim:
A method for deploying and managing software components to a plurality of network devices of an extended data communications network, the method comprising the acts of: defining a plurality of client types each of which is associated with particular software components to be installed on the plurality of network devices; assigning one of the plurality of client types to all of the plurality of network devices on which the particular software components associated with such client type are to be installed, and without regard to which software components were previously installed in the plurality of network devices; receiving a client type of the plurality of client types corresponding to software components to be provided to at least one of the plurality of network devices; identifying each of the plurality of network devices that was assigned said client type based on comparing the client type to the plurality of client types assigned to each of the plurality of network devices; providing said software components to only said identified plurality of network devices based on said identified at least one network device having been assigned the client type; installing said software components on said identified plurality of network devices such that functional capabilities of the software components may be employed by the network device; and storing a record of the software components installed on the identified plurality of network devices on a hub server associated with the extended data communications network.