Policy implementation and management

The method of claim 1, wherein the policy is a first policy associated with a first application, wherein the metric is a first metric, and wherein the rule is a first rule, the method further comprising:

• receiving, by the probe agent executing on the host device, a second policy associated with a second application;
• monitoring, by the probe agent, a second metric associated with the host device, wherein monitoring the second metric is performed across each of the plurality of virtual computing instances executing on the host device;
• analyzing the second metric, by the probe agent, to determine if conditions of a second rule are met;
• and
• taking an action, by the probe agent and on the host device, to implement the second policy on the host device in response to determining that the conditions of the second rule are met.

A host device on a network comprising processing circuitry and a storage device, wherein the processing circuity has access to the storage device and is configured to:

• receive, over the network, a policy associated with an application executing on the host device;
• monitor a metric associated with the host device, wherein monitoring the metric is performed across each of a plurality of virtual computing instances executing on the host device;
• analyze the metric to determine if conditions of a rule are met;
• take an action to implement the policy on the host device in response to determining that the conditions of the rule are met, wherein taking the action includes instantiating an additional virtual computing instance on the host device;
• and
• monitor, after taking the action, the metric across each of the plurality of virtual computing instances including the additional virtual computing instance executing on the host device.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, configure processing circuitry of a host device to:

• receive, over a network, a policy associated with an application executing on the host device;
• monitor a metric associated with the host device, wherein monitoring the metric is performed across each of a plurality of virtual computing instances executing on the host device;
• analyze the metric to determine if conditions of a rule are met;
• take an action to implement the policy on the host device in response to determining that the conditions of the rule are met, wherein taking the action includes instantiating an additional virtual computing instance on the host device;
• and
• monitor, after taking the action, the metric across each of the plurality of virtual computing instances including the additional virtual computing instance executing on the host device.