Patent ID: 7546300

Claim:
A computer-based system for providing unsecure access to management information about non-proprietary managed objects, and secure access to management information about proprietary managed objects in response to a request from a client application having the required access level for receiving management information from proprietary managed objects, the system comprising: an open management service including an open management application programming interface; a plurality of managed objects including at least one non-proprietary managed object and at least one proprietary managed object; a non-proprietary object interface for (i) electronically on a processor receiving management information from the non-proprietary managed object, (ii) converting the received management information into a format accessible to the open management service, and (iii) providing converted management information to the open management service in response to the request from the client application, without having to identify that an access code has been transmitted as part of the request; and a proprietary object interface for (i) receiving management information from the proprietary managed object, (ii) converting the received management information into a format accessible to the open management service, (iii) identifying an access code transmitted by the client application as part of the request, and (iv) independent of login credentials of a user of the system, providing converted management information to the open management service in response to the request from the client application only in the event that the identified access code matches an entry in a list of valid access codes so as to limit access to management information from proprietary managed objects to those client applications having the required access level for receiving management information from proprietary managed objects; wherein (i) the list of valid access codes is held within a repository in the open management service, and (ii) the repository comprises a plurality of Common Interface Model (CIM) classes, each CIM class having an associated access level indicating the access code required to receive management information about that CIM class.