Patent ID: 8701109

Claim:
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to: receive a customer dataset; store the customer dataset in long-term storage; create a first virtual machine on a host computer based on a first immortal instance type, the first immortal instance type defining a well-defined virtualized hardware configuration such that virtual machines implementing the well-defined virtualized hardware configuration may be created on future host computing platforms; create a first instance of data processing resources in the first virtual machine, the first instance configured such that a related application capable of accessing data in the customer dataset may be installed and executed in the first instance and tested and configured for compatibility with the first instance; generate a machine image of the first instance, the machine image comprising the installation and configuration of the related application in the first instance; store the machine image in the long-term storage associated with the customer dataset; and map the customer dataset and the associated machine image in the long-term storage to the first immortal instance type in mapping data.