Patent ID: 7917541

Claim:
A method for providing data, comprising: passing policy information with node entity operation instructions from an initial node entity of a hierarchical tree of tree node entities to one or more target leaf node entities of the hierarchical tree, the passing comprising successively passing the policy information through a series of linked tree node entities of the hierarchical tree connecting the initial node entity to the one or more target leaf node entities; based at least in part on the node entity operation instructions, collecting data using the hierarchical tree from a plurality of data sources, to thereby provide collected data, the hierarchical tree including a plurality of levels including a leaf level, tree node entities in the leaf level of the hierarchical tree corresponding to leaf node entities, the leaf node entities including the one or more target leaf node entities; based at least in part on the node entity operation instructions, storing the collected data using storage resources provided by at least one portion of data processing equipment associated with the tree node entities of the hierarchical tree; based at least in part on the node entity operation instructions, aggregating the collected data to form aggregated data using computing resources provided by one or both of: the at least one portion or at least one other portion of the data processing equipment associated with the tree node entities of the hierarchical tree, the storage resources and the computing resources together comprising distributed resources provided by the hierarchical tree; and based at least in part on the node entity operation instructions, selectively providing at least parts of the collected data and the aggregated data to a receiving entity.