Patent ID: 8191084

Claim:
A method to support application operation, the method comprising: discovering a set of applications running on an electronic system; querying a user to identify which of the set of applications the user wishes to manage; and for each application identified by the user, providing an application service to that application to support operation of that application, the application service being separate from operating system services and security protection services provided by the electronic system; wherein querying the user includes: listing the set of applications on a display to the user; and receiving, for each application, (i) a move command indicating whether the user wishes to move data of that application to new hardware of the electronic system, (ii) a backup command indicating whether the user wishes to backup the data of that application on the new hardware of the electronic system, and (iii) a storage augmentation command indicating whether the user wishes to provide additional storage capacity for the data of that application from the new hardware of the electronic system, wherein providing an application service includes installing and running an application image of the application on the new hardware of the electronic system to contribute to throughput of the application, the application image being similar to an application running on the electronic system, wherein the method further comprises accessing a supported applications database, the supported applications database including an individual entry for each supported application, wherein each entry includes: preloaded application information, including profile information that enables communication with the application, specialized routines that enable provisioning and management of the application, and management and support tools for the application, application information accumulated over time, including application configuration information, performance statistics, and recommendations to improve performance, and user entered application information, including current configuration information and commands directing how operation various situations, wherein the preloaded application information, the application information accumulated over time, and the user entered application information are accessible by the user.