Patent ID: 7836292

Claim:
A system comprising: a plurality of hardware devices; a communication link, wherein the communication link is configurable to couple the hardware devices to one another; a plurality of software programs, wherein each of the software programs is executable by at least one hardware device of the hardware devices, and the software programs comprise at least one of operating system software and application software; a computer system, wherein the computer system comprises a processor, an input device, coupled to the processor, and a display, coupled to the processor, and the computer system is coupled to the hardware devices and communication link; and a user interface, wherein the user interface is presented on the display, the user interface is configured to provide for construction of a visual construction of a distributed computing environment, the distributed computing environment comprises the communication link, at least one of the hardware devices, and at least one of the software programs, and the computer system is configured to provide for the creation of the distributed computing environment according to the visual construction by virtue of the user interface being configured to accept a first input via the input device, wherein the first input specifies a type of operating system for use in the distributed computing environment, accept a second input via the input device, wherein the second input specifies a type of hardware for use within the distributed computing environment, accept a third input via the input device, wherein the third input specifies software to be used within the distributed computing environment, and cause the system to instantiate the distributed computing environment using a device configuration.