Managing networks and machines that deliver digital content

A computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps of:

• computing a first action based on a first current state that is associated with a first finite state machine (FSM) and a second current state that is associated with a second FSM, wherein the first FSM is associated with a first operational status of a content delivery network (CDN) and the second FSM is associated with a second operational status of the CDN;
• computing a next state based on the first action and a third current state that is associated with a third FSM;
• determining that the next state does not equal the third current state;
• and
• setting the third current state equal to the next state and executing a first event handling operation.

A system comprising:

• a memory storing a monitoring engine;
• and
• a processor that is coupled to the memory and, when executing the monitoring engine, is configured to:
• monitor a first component associated with a content delivery network (CDN) via a first metric;
• compute a first action based on the first metric;
• execute a first state transition between a first state and a second state based on the first action, wherein the first state and the second state are associated with a first finite state machine (FSM);
• compute a second action based on the second state and a third state that is associated with a second FSM;
• execute a second state transition between a fourth state and a fifth state based on the second action, wherein the fourth state and the fifth state are associated with a third FSM;
• and
• in response to the second state transition, execute a first event handling operation.