1. A policy based network management system comprising: a plurality of device proxies, each device proxy to policy manage one or more devices in a network; a device discovery coupled to the plurality of devices and the plurality of device proxies, the device discovery to receive a filter from one or more device proxies, the filter specifying device-specific information, the device discovery to identify the devices that match each filter and to notify one or more of the device proxies of the devices that match the proxy's filter.