BACKGROUND

Large corporations and institutions have huge numbers of machines operating software including various computers, mobile devices, and equipment controllers. Each of these computing devices in turn contains a number of programs or applications. Making sure that each computing machine has the most current version of the applications running and that the machine is not running undesirable applications is a daunting and error prone task. In particular, it is difficult to manually keep track of which applications are to be running on which machines and to constantly survey machines to ensure that they are running the correct applications. As a result, large numbers of machines in corporations are running incomplete or incorrect collections of applications and therefore the computing system as a whole is not operating as desired.

The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter. The claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any or all disadvantages noted in the background.

SUMMARY

A machine includes a memory and a processor performing steps. The steps include receiving at the processor a request for a metric describing an execution of an application on the processor. A respective request for the metric is sent from the processor to each of a plurality of computing machines. Responses from the plurality of computing machines are received at the processor and are used to send from the processor a response to the request for the metric that was received at the processor.

In a further embodiment, a computer-implemented method includes receiving a request at a computer for a metric associated with execution of an application. A respective request for the metric is then sent to each of a plurality of computing machines that are executing the application. Respective responses are received from each of the plurality of computing machines and are used to create and send a response to request for the metric wherein the response makes it appear that the application is being executed by the computer instead of by the plurality of computing machines.

In a still further embodiment, a computer-implemented method includes receiving at a computer a request for a metric describing an execution of an application on the computer and sending from the computer a respective request for the metric to each of a plurality of computing machines. Responses are received at the computer from the plurality of computing machines and are used to send from the computer a response to the request for the metric that was received at the computer.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

