Patent ID: 7278134

Claim:
A system including a solution advisor tool for designing an information technology (IT) solution, comprising: a knowledge management system for generating and storing information in a hierarchical format, wherein the knowledge management system includes: a first knowledge base of characteristics; a second knowledge base that manages relationship information regarding the interactions of characteristics and defines all valid characteristic combinations, wherein each valid characteristic combination forms a network unit; a third knowledge base that manages information regarding the interconnectability of network units, wherein a valid combination of network units comprises a configuration; and a fourth knowledge base that manages information regarding sets of all possible configurations that can fulfill a predetermined function, wherein each set comprises a cloud; and a design interface system for generating the IT solution, comprising: a system for specifying the solution using a first cloud; a system for replacing the first cloud with a set of second clouds; a system for replacing a selected cloud with at least one configuration; a system for replacing a selected configuration with at least one network unit; and a system for replacing a generic network unit with a specific network unit.