Patent ID: 7383552

Claim:
In a computing environment, a system for providing system information to a client, comprising, one of more storage mediums; a plurality of providers, each provider corresponding to a source of system information and including a provider access interface; a repository, the repository including data that identifies which of the providers provide system information that a client may request; and a manager that isolates the client from the providers, including an access interface that receives a client request for system information, the manager configured to: receive a client query; determine a capability level of a provider of information for satisfying the query based on providing the client query to the provider and evaluating a response from the provider; simplifying the query, if the response indicates the provider cannot handle the query; providing a request for information to at least one source of data based on the capability level thereof; receiving data from the at least one source; and returning information corresponding to the data in response to the client query.