US Patent 10095553 Hierarchical federated area trees

An apparatus includes a processor to: grant a first device access to a first federated area, but not a second device; grant the second device access to a second federated area, but not the first device; grant the first and second devices access to a base federated area; maintain inheritance relationships among the federated areas so an object stored in the base federated area is as accessible to the first device as an object in the first federated area and is as accessible to the second device as an object in the second federated area; and maintain priority relationships among the federated areas so priority is given to providing the first device access to a task routine stored in the first federated area, and to providing the second device access to a task routine stored in the second federated area, over a task routine stored in the base federated area.