Patent ID: 7793301

Claim:
A method for providing efficient object-based network management, comprising: receiving a reference request from a collaborating object for a reference to an object, the object representing one of a number of managed network elements that are managed by a plurality of collaborating objects, the collaborating object being one of the plurality of collaborating objects, and each of the plurality of collaborating objects corresponding to one of a number of applications; determining whether the object is currently activated in a management platform; activating the object based on the reference request for the reference to the object when the object is not currently activated; providing the reference to the object to the collaborating object; receiving a release request from the collaborating object; providing a release confirmation to the collaborating object in response to the release request from the collaborating object, the release confirmation comprising setting the reference to the object to a stale value for the collaborating object; and managing a count of references to the object.