Apparatus, methods, and computer programs for identifying or managing vulnerabilities within a data processing network

A resource consumer apparatus for use in a computing grid, the apparatus comprising:

• a data processing system;
• a computer readable tangible storage device having instructions stored thereon the instructions, when executed by the data processing system, perform a method comprising:
• sending, by the data processing system, a request for proposal (RFP) to a plurality of resource providers associated with the computing grid, the RFP being descriptive of a proposed data processing task;
• after sending the RFP, receiving, by the data processing system, one or more RFP responses each associated with a respective resource provider in the computing grid, the one or more RFP responses each including one or more indicators of estimated data processing task parameters associated with proposed future execution of the proposed data processing task by the respective resource provider;
• detecting, by the data processing system, an exception condition for a selected one of the one or more RFP responses;
• and
• in response to detecting an exception condition for the selected RFP response, automatically determining, by the data processing system, whether the exception condition will be waived and thereby enabling the selected one of the one or more RFP responses for acceptance by the resource consumer, wherein detecting the exception condition for the selected RFP response further comprises:
• computing, by the data processing system, a performance capability measure for the respective resource provider associated with the selected one of the one or more RFP responses, the performance capability measure being calculated from multiple data processing task parameter indicators from the selected one of the one or more RFP responses.

A computer readable tangible storage device having instructions stored thereon for execution by a data processing system to delegate a data processing task, wherein the instructions, when executed by the data processing system, perform a method comprising:

• sending, by the data processing system, a request for proposal (RFP) to a plurality of resource providers communicatively associated with the data processing system, the RFP being descriptive of a proposed data processing task;
• after sending the RFP, receiving, by the data processing system, one or more RFP responses each associated with a respective resource provider in a virtual organization, the one or more RFP responses each including one or more indicators of estimated data processing task parameters associated with proposed future execution of the proposed data processing task by the respective resource provider;
• detecting, by the data processing system, an exception condition for a selected one of the one or more RFP responses;
• in response to detecting, by the data processing system, an exception condition for a selected one of the one or more RFP responses, automatically determining whether the exception condition will be waived and thereby enabling the selected one of the at least one or more RFP responses for acceptance by the resource consumer;
• and
• dynamically updating, by the data processing system, a set of rules for determining whether exception conditions will be waived, wherein the dynamically updating is performed in response to user handling of a first exception condition after the first exception condition was not waived.