US Patent 10540502 Software assurance for heterogeneous distributed computing systems

A risk model for a distributed computing system comprises a plurality of tree nodes organized as a tree. For each tree node of the risk model, the tree node corresponds to a respective event that may befall a distributed computing system. An analysis computing system generates data associating a test agent with a target and also generates data associating the test agent with a tree node in the risk model. The test agent performs a data gathering routine that gathers data from the target associated with the test agent. The gathered data may indicate whether the event corresponding to the tree node is occurring. Furthermore, the analysis computing system may perform the data gathering routine according to a recurrence pattern of the data gathering routine. The analysis computing system may output a graphical representation of the data indicating whether the event corresponding to the tree node is occurring.