1. A computer-implemented method of simulating a plurality of devices, said method comprising: accessing configuration data for said plurality of devices and automatically instantiating said plurality of devices within computer memory based on said configuration data, wherein said accessing and said automatically instantiating are performed by a simulator operable to be coupled to a system under test, and wherein said accessing further comprises accessing said configuration data from a system separate from said system under test; accessing commands communicated from a device abstraction layer, wherein said commands are associated with said plurality of devices, and wherein said device abstraction layer is included in said system under test and said device abstraction layer is tested and analyzed, wherein said analysis includes analyzing performance of said device abstraction layer based upon a result of processing of simulated device data by said device abstraction layer, said device abstraction layer couples said simulator to said system under test, and wherein said device abstraction layer comprises a device configuration management component operable to download said configuration data and store said configuration data in its database to enable communication with said simulator and a device monitoring component operable to process received simulated output data from said plurality of devices; and automatically simulating said plurality of devices based on execution of said commands, wherein said automatically simulating comprises communicating said simulated device data from said simulator to said system under test for performance testing of at least a portion of said system under test.