Public and private network service management systems and methods

An apparatus for managing policies associated with network services available in a private services network, the apparatus comprising:

• a gateway interface to be operatively coupled to a public network gateway through which a network service consumer client of the services network in a public network accesses the services network to use a network service provided by another client of the services network;
• and
• a policy manager operatively coupled to the gateway interface and configured to distribute network service policies specifying respective access controls for network services, provided by network service provider clients of the services network, to the public network gateway through the gateway interface to cause the public network gateway to control use of the network services by the network service consumer client in the public network in accordance with the network service policies.

An apparatus for managing network services in a private services network, the apparatus comprising:

• a policy enforcement module configured to enforce rules for access to the private services network by a client of the services network through a public network in accordance with an authentication policy of the private services network, and to allow an authenticated client to make a network service which it provides available in the private services network.

A method of managing network services of a private services network, the method comprising:

• identifying a network service, provided by a client of the private services network and available in the private services network, having an access policy which allows access to the network service by clients of the services network which connect to the services network over the public network;
• and
• making the identified network service available to a clients of the services network through the public network.