Method, device, and program storage device for autonomous software life cycle management

A device comprising:

• a software life cycle management agent executing on one or more hardware processors, the agent configured to:
• communicate one or more capabilities needed by the device to one or more yellow pages agents outside the device, the communicating comprising formulating a request including instructions as to how to determine possible software products having traits matching the needed capabilities, the instructions including a threshold indicating a number of needed capabilities that should be met by any software product the one or more yellow pages agents determine to be a match for the needed capabilities;
• receive locations of one or more software products matching the one or more capabilities needed by the device from the one or more yellow pages agents;
• download one of the one or more software products using its received location;
• and
• install the selected software product on the device.

A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions, which when implemented by one or more machines, cause the one or more machines to perform operations comprising:

• communicating one or more capabilities needed by a device to one or more yellow pages agents outside the device, the communicating comprising formulating a request including instructions as to how to determine possible software products having traits matching the needed capabilities, the instructions including a threshold indicating a number of needed capabilities that should be met by any software product the one or more yellow pages agents determine to be a match for the needed capabilities;
• receiving locations of one or more software products matching the one or more capabilities needed by the device from the one or more yellow pages agents;
• downloading one of the one or more software products using its received location;
• and
• installing the selected software product on the device.