Managing technology resources across multiple platforms

At a computer system, the computer system including one or more processors, system memory, and a platform-specific gateway, the platform-specific gateway situated between a directive dispatcher and a specific targeted device, the platform-specific gateway configured to translate operating data collected from a specified targeted device in a device-specific data format into a device-neutral data format, the device-neutral data format for use with abstract device-neutral directives issued by the directive dispatcher, a plurality of platform-specific gateways, including the platform-specific gateway, communicatively coupled to a uniform data collection service, each of the plurality of platform-specific gateways configured to translate device-specific operating data from different corresponding specific targeted devices into the device-neutral data format for submission to the uniform data collection service, a method for managing technology resources at the specified target device, the method comprising:

• the platform-specific gateway collecting operational data from the specified target device, the operational data in the device-specific data format, the operational data related to a previously issued directive from the directive dispatcher;
• the platform-specific gateway translating the operational data from the device-specific data format into the device-neutral data format, the device-neutral data format defined in a device-neutral data schema, each of the plurality of platform-specific gateways configured to adhere to the device-neutral data schema;
• and
• the platform-specific gateway submitting the operational data in the device-neutral data format to the uniform data collection service for storage in a data persistence store, the operational data for subsequent use by business logic when processing issued directives from the directive dispatcher.

A technology resources management system, the technology resources management system comprising service-side components, a plurality of platform-specific gateways, and a plurality of specified targeted devices,

• the service-side components, including:
• one or more processors;
• system memory;
• a data persistence store, the data persistence store storing operational data collected from the one or more specified targeted devices;
• and
• one or more computer storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions representing a directive dispatcher, one or more directive processors, a data collector, and a distribution router, (i) the directive processor configured to:
• receive directives via an administrative console, the directives for implementing a configuration change at one or more of the plurality of specified target devices;
• dispatch the directives as device-neutral directives to at least one of the one or more directive processors, the directives in a device-neutral format;
• (ii) each of the one or more directive processors configured to:
• receive device-neutral directives from the directive dispatcher;
• access operational data relevant to the device-neutral directives from the data persistence store;
• apply business logic to the received device-neutral directive along with the accessed operational data to adjust the device-neutral directive in a device-neutral manner for execution at the one or more of the plurality of specified targeted devices;
• and
• forward the adjusted device-neutral directive to the distribution router;
• (iii) the data collector configured to:
• receive operational data submitted from platform-specific gateways in a device-neutral data format;
• and
• store the operational data in the data persistence store in the device-neutral format for processing by the one or more directive processors;
• (iv) the distribution router configured to:
• receive device-neutral directives from the one or more directive processors;
• identify the appropriate platform-specific gateways, from among the plurality of platform-specific gateways, that are to receive the device-neutral directives, the appropriate platform-specific gateways identified based on the one or more of the plurality of specified target devices that are to implement the configuration change;
• and
• forwarding the device-neutral directives to the identified appropriate platform-specific gateways;
• each of the plurality of platform-specific gateways configured to interface between the service-side components and a corresponding specified target device, including processing abstract device-neutral directives from the directive dispatcher and processing operational data from a specified target device:
• processing abstract device-neutral directives including:
• receive an abstract device-neutral directive from the distribution router;
• translate the abstract device-neutral directive into a form suitable for execution at the specified target device to implement the configuration change;
• and
• send the directive in the form suitable for execution at the specified target device to the specified target device so as to realize the configuration change at the specified target device;
• processing operational data including:
• collect operational data from the specified target device, the operational data in a device-specific data format, the operational data related to a directive from the directive dispatcher;
• translate the operational data from the device-specific data format into the device-neutral data format;
• and
• submit the operational data in the device-neutral data format to the uniform data collection service for storage in a data persistence store;
• and
• each of the plurality of specified targeted devices configured to:
• receive a directive in a form suitable for execution from a corresponding platform-specific gateway;
• execute the directive to realize the configuration change;
• and
• return operation data related to the configuration change to the corresponding platform-specific gateway in the device-specific data format.