Methods and apparatus to identify priorities of compliance assessment results of a virtual computing environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9807116-B2
Application number	US-201314069298-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 31, 2013
Priority date	May 3, 2013
Publication date	Oct 31, 2017
Grant date	Oct 31, 2017

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to identify priorities of compliance assessment results of a virtual computing environment. An example method disclosed herein to identify priorities for defects includes associating, with a processor, a first defect with an asset class and a repair action, the first defect indicative of a computing resource being out of compliance with a policy, determining, with the processor, a priority for the defect based on past repair actions performed to correct past defects corresponding to the same asset class, and displaying the defect in rank order with a plurality of other defects based on the priority.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method to identify priorities for defects, the method comprising:
automatically associating, by executing an instruction with a processor in a virtual environment, a first defect and a second defect with (1) an asset class of a plurality of asset classes and (2) a same repair action of a plurality of repair actions;
automatically associating, by executing an instruction with the processor, the first defect and the second defect with a first defect class of a plurality of defect classes, the first defect class selected based on (1) the asset class associated with the first defect and the second defect and (2) the same repair action associated with the first defect and the second defect, the first defect and the second defect being two different defects;
automatically determining, by executing an instruction with the processor, a priority for the first defect based on a rate of repair associated with the first defect class and without an express priority ranking provided by a user, the rate of repair corresponding to past repair actions performed to correct past defects corresponding to the first defect class, the rate of repair representative of an importance of a corresponding defect to an end user based on an average historical detect-to-repair time between (1) detecting defects that are in a same asset class and (2) initiating a same repair action; and
displaying the first defect in rank order with a plurality of other defects based on the priority.

2. A method to identify priorities for defects, the method comprising:
automatically associating, by executing an instruction with a processor in a virtual environment, a first defect and a second defect with (1) an asset class of a plurality of asset classes and (2) a same repair action of a plurality of repair actions, the first defect indicative of a computing resource being out of compliance with a policy;
automatically associating, by executing an instruction with the processor, the first defect and the second defect with a first defect class of a plurality of defect classes, the first defect class selected based on (1) the asset class associated with the first defect and the second defect and (2) the same repair action associated with the first defect and the second defect, the first defect and the second defect being two different defects;
automatically determining, by executing an instruction with the processor, a repair effectiveness for the policy, the repair effectiveness corresponding to a change in a compliance score of the policy in response to repairing defects included in the first defect class; and
automatically generating, by executing an instruction with the processor, an estimation function for unrepaired defects in the asset class requiring the repair action, the estimation function to determine the priority of the unrepaired defects based on the first defect class.

3. A method as defined in claim 2 , further including determining a rate of repair for defects in the asset class and associated with the repair action, the rate of repair representative of an average historical detect-to-repair time between detecting a defect in the asset class and initiating the repair action.

4. A method as defined in claim 3 , wherein the rate of repair is representative of an importance of a corresponding defect to an end user.

5. A method as defined in claim 2 , wherein the estimation function is based on the repair effectiveness and a rate of repair associated with the first defect class.

6. A method as defined in claim 2 , wherein the generating of the estimation function further includes using past repair actions to train a machine-learning algorithm to generate the estimation function, the past repair actions performed to correct past defects corresponding to the same asset class.

7. A method as defined in claim 6 , wherein the training algorithm includes support vector regression.

8. A method as defined in claim 2 , further including determining a priority for the defect class based on past repair actions performed to correct past defects of the first defect class.

9. An apparatus to identify priorities for defects, the apparatus comprising:
a results grouper to:
automatically associate a first defect and a second defect with (1) an asset class of a plurality of asset classes and 2) a same repair action of a plurality of repair actions; and
automatically associate the first defect and the second defect with a first defect class of a plurality of defect classes, the first defect class selected based on the asset class associated with the first defect and the second defect, the first defect and the second defect being two different defects;

a priority estimator to automatically determine a priority for the first defect based on a rate of repair associated with the first defect class and without an express priority ranking provided by a user, the rate of repair corresponding to past repair actions performed to correct past defects corresponding to the first defect class, the rate of repair representative of an importance of a corresponding defect to an end user based on an average historical detect-to-repair time between (1) detecting defects that are in a same asset class and (2) initiating a same repair action, and the priority estimator to facilitate displaying the first defect in rank order with a plurality of other defect based on the priority,
at least one of the results grouper and the priority estimator implemented by a logic circuit.

10. An apparatus to identify priorities for defects, the apparatus comprising:
a results grouper to:
automatically associate a first defect and a second defect with (1) an asset class of a plurality of asset classes and (2) a same repair action of a plurality of repair actions, the first defect to be indicative of a computing resource in a virtual environment being out of compliance with a policy; and
automatically associate the first defect and the second defect with a first defect class of a plurality of defect classes, the first defect class selected based on (1) the asset class associated with the first defect and the second defect and (2) the same repair action associated with the first defect and the second defect, the first defect and the second defect being two different defects;

a repair effectiveness calculator to automatically determine a repair effectiveness for the policy, the repair effectiveness to correspond to a change in a compliance score of the policy in response to repairing defects included in the first defect class; and
a priority estimator to automatically determine a priority for the first defect based on past repair actions performed to correct past defects corresponding to the first defect class, and the priority estimator to facilitate displaying the first defect in rank order with a plurality of other defects based on the priority,
at least one of the results grouper, the repair effectiveness calculator, and the priority estimator implemented by a logic circuit.

11. An apparatus as defined in claim 10 , further including a repair bias calculator to determine a rate of repair for defects which are (1) in the asset class and (2) associated with the repair action, the rate of repair representative of an average historical detect-to-repair time between detecting a defect in the asset class and initiating the repair action.

12. An apparatus as defined in claim 11 , wherein the rate of repair is representative of an importance of a corresponding defect to an end user.

13. An apparatus as defined in claim 11 , wherein the priority estimator is to generate an estimation function for unrepaired defects in the a

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Frascadore Gregory A
• Helander Robert
• Nelson Eric D
• Sullivan James
• Smith Rebecca

Classifications

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• H04L63/104

  Grouping of entities · CPC title

• H04L63/20 Primary

  for managing network security; network security policies in general (filtering policies H04L63/0227) · CPC title

• H04L63/1433

  Vulnerability analysis · CPC title

• G06F21/577

  Assessing vulnerabilities and evaluating computer system security · CPC title