Universal remote appliance lifecycle management

An appliance lifecycle management server comprising:

• a plurality of appliance lifecycle databases to receive and store lifecycle information about appliances controlled by a plurality of mobile universal remote controllers (MURCs) each controlling a multiplicity of appliances,
• an access controller accessible by said MURCs and by appliance service providers, said access controller to assign roles and access permissions to said MURC and to appliance server providers;
• and
• a plurality of flow handlers to provide a subset of said lifecycle information stored in said databases according to said defined permissions and roles of said MURCs and said appliance server providers,
• wherein one of said permissions includes enabling access of a selected said appliance service provider to temporarily control one of said plurality of appliances via said MURC.

An appliance lifecycle method implemented on a server, the method comprising:

• receiving and storing lifecycle information about appliances controlled by a plurality of mobile universal remote controllers (MURCs) each controlling a multiplicity of appliances,
• controlling the access to said lifecycle information by assigning roles and access permissions to said MURC and to appliance server providers;
• and
• enabling access of a selected said appliance service provider to temporarily control one of said plurality of appliances via said MURC.