Patent ID: 8117104

Claim:
A computer implemented method of automatically applying policies on a plurality of assets for allowing compliancy management of the assets in dynamic environments, comprising the steps of: providing a compliance management system on a computing device, wherein said computing device is connected to a network comprising said assets for allowing said compliance management system to access said network; discovering said assets of different asset types by said compliance management system using a plurality of distributed software interfaces over said network, wherein each discovered asset comprises one or more electrically available attributes; automatically detecting one or more of said electrically available attributes of each of said discovered assets by said distributed software interfaces, wherein said distributed software interfaces report back said detected attributes to said compliance management system; receiving a group filter criterion from a user through a user interface, wherein said received group filter criterion corresponds to one or more of said asset attributes; grouping the discovered assets within one or more virtual asset groups by said compliance management system, if the virtual asset groups exist based on said received group filter criterion; automatically creating the virtual asset groups by said compliance management system, if the virtual asset groups do not exist based on the received group filter criterion associated with said asset attribute, wherein the discovered assets are grouped within said automatically created virtual asset groups; displaying the automatically created virtual asset groups to the user, wherein each of the virtual asset groups contain representations of the assets having the same asset attributes for the received group filter criterion; allowing the user to associate one or more of the assets belonging to one or more virtual asset groups with one or more of the policies; and automatically applying one or more of said policies to said assets in said one or more virtual asset groups based on a dynamic change in said asset attributes; whereby said automatic assigning of the policies on the virtual asset groups allow compliancy management of the assets in dynamic environments.