Evaluating software compliance

Abstract

A software compliance assessment apparatus for determining a level of compliance of a software application in execution in a virtualized computing environment, the apparatus comprising: an identifier component operable to identify resources instantiated for execution of the application; a retriever component operable to retrieve a compliance characteristic for the application, the compliance characteristic being retrieved based on the identified resources, and the compliance characteristic having associated a compliance criterion based on a formal parameter; a selector component operable to select a software component for providing an actual parameter corresponding to the formal parameter, the actual parameter being based on data concerning at least one of the resources; an evaluator component operable to evaluate the compliance criterion using the actual parameter; and a detector component operable to detect a change to one or more of the resources, wherein the identifier component, selector component and evaluator component are operable in response to a determination by the detector component that one or more resources is changed, wherein the selector component selects the software component based on an identification of one or more data items that the software component is operable to provide.