Distributed management with embedded agents in enterprise apps

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9794351-B2
Application number	US-201514690313-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 17, 2015
Priority date	Mar 1, 2013
Publication date	Oct 17, 2017
Grant date	Oct 17, 2017

Abstract

Distributed mobile device management including a plurality of management agents is disclosed. Management-related information may be retrieved from a storage location accessible to a plurality of management agents. The management-related information may have been provided to the storage location from a management agent associated with a managed application. And at least one operation may be performed based at least in part on the management-related information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
retrieving, from a storage location of a mobile device by a first management agent of the mobile device, management-related information provided to the storage location by a second management agent of the mobile device upon interruption of at least one operation of a second managed application, wherein the management-related information at least includes management state information that indicates a current state of the at least one operation and wherein the first management agent is associated with a first managed application;
performing by the first management agent with respect to the first managed application the at least one operation based at least in part on the management-related information;
determining, at the first management agent based at least in part on the management-related information, that the second managed application is active on the mobile device and is a higher priority application; and
transitioning the first management agent to an inactive state.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the storage location comprises a secure storage location accessible to a plurality of managements on the mobile device.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the management-related information comprises mobile device state information.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first management agent retrieves the management-related information at least in part in response to detection of a state-related event.

5. The method of claim 1 , performing the at least one operation includes determining based at least in part on the management-related information that the at least one operation is pending.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first management agent is configured to determine that no other management agent is currently active and to store a second management-related information in the storage location based at least in part on the determination that no other management agent is currently active.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the operation includes storing in the storage location a second management-related information associated with prompting a third managed application to perform a task associated with the operation.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the operation includes connecting to a remote management server.

9. A mobile device, comprising:
a storage device; and
a processor coupled to the storage device and configured to:
retrieve on behalf of a first management agent of the mobile device from a storage location on the storage device, management-related information provided to the storage location by a second management agent of the mobile device upon interruption of at least one operation of a second managed application, wherein the management-related information at least includes management state information that indicates a current state of the at least one operation and wherein the first management agent is associated with a first managed application;
perform with respect to the first managed application the at least one operation based at least in part on the management-related information
determine, at the first management agent based at least in part on the management-related information, that the second managed application is active on the mobile device and is a higher priority application; and
transition the first management agent to an inactive state.

10. The mobile device of claim 9 , wherein the storage location comprises a secure storage location accessible to a plurality of managements on the mobile device.

11. The mobile device of claim 9 , wherein the management-related information comprises mobile device state information.

12. The mobile device of claim 9 , wherein the first management agent retrieves the management-related information at least in part in response to detection of a state-related event.

13. The mobile device of claim 9 , performing the at least one operation includes determining based at least in part on the management-related information that the at least one operation is pending.

14. The mobile device of claim 9 , wherein the first management agent is configured to determine that no other management agent is currently active and to store a second management-related information in the storage location based at least in part on the determination that no other management agent is currently active.

15. The mobile device of claim 9 , wherein performing the operation includes storing in the storage location a second management-related information associated with prompting a third managed application to perform a task associated with the operation.

16. The mobile device of claim 9 , wherein performing the operation includes connecting to a remote management server.

17. A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium and comprising computer instructions for:
retrieving, from a storage location of a mobile device by a first management agent of the mobile device, management-related information provided to the storage location by a second management agent of the mobile device upon interruption of at least one operation of a second managed application, wherein the management-related information at least includes management state information that indicates a current state of the at least one operation and wherein the first management agent is associated with a first manage application;
performing by the first management agent with respect to the first managed application the at least one operation based at least in part on the management-related information;
determining, at the first management agent based at least in part on the management-related information, that the second managed application is active on the mobile device and is a higher priority application; and
transitioning the first management agent to an inactive state.

Assignees

• Mobile Iron Inc

Inventors

• Kim Mansu
• Batchu Suresh Kumar
• Sirota Joshua

Classifications

• H04L67/04

  specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability · CPC title

• H04L29/06027

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L41/0813

  characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings · CPC title

• H04L67/1097

  for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title

• H04L29/08072

  Electricity · mapped topic