1. In a computing environment having a computer-based system, a method comprising, using a processing unit, collecting properties of a processor; storing the collected properties in a data structure containing information related to the processor, wherein the data structure comprises information related to the processor includes creation date information that is indexed by a key determined from a combination of at least some of the properties, wherein the properties for a given processor include a hash value representative of at least two other properties, accessing the data structure based upon at least some of the properties to access other information with respect to the processor, wherein using data based upon the properties to access other information with respect to the processor comprises looking up a creation date based upon the properties, and associating the creation date with the processor, and, determining an approximate age of the computer-based system based upon the creation date of the processor.