Method and system for network event impact analysis and correlation with network administrators, management policies and procedures

A method for analyzing the impact of network events on a network in an enterprise, the method comprising:

• collecting and normalizing enterprise data from a plurality of individually managed data sources located throughout the network;
• populating enterprise data objects representative of enterprise elements using the collected data;
• generating hierarchies of related enterprise data objects representative of structures and business processes of the enterprise;
• storing a plurality of action objects utilizing stored logic to act upon the relationships defined by the hierarchies to handle network event;
• and
• processing received data regarding network events to select an action object to execute for each network event.

A method for generating an impact analysis data structure for use in handling network events generated by a network in an enterprise, the method comprising:

• storing a plurality of data source adapters each capable of collecting enterprise-related data from a data source having a particular format;
• for each data source, using one of the data source adapters to collect enterprise-related data from the data source and storing the enterprise-related data in an enterprise data object;
• and
• defining relationships between enterprise data objects of different data types representative of structure and business processes of the enterprise;
• thereby generating an impact analysis data structure which defines relationships between enterprise-related data and which is used to determine how a network event impacts on the enterprise.

A method for using an impact analysis data structure to handle network events generated in a network in an enterprise, the method comprising:

• populating the impact analysis data structure with data accessed from a plurality of data sources throughout the network;
• defining, by the impact analysis data structure, relationships between enterprise-related data objects including administrators, workstations, or business units;
• selecting an action policy to implement for a given network event;
• identifying a workstation affected by the given network event;
• traversing the impact analysis data structure to determine the one or more administrators, and one or more business units affected by the network event;
• and
• using the action policy to contact the one or more affected administrators.