1. A method comprising the steps of: discovering a configuration model for an existing software solution that is distributed over a plurality of existing machines, said configuration model comprising a plurality of configuration items, said plurality of configuration items in turn comprising a plurality of independent attributes and a plurality of dependent attributes, said plurality of dependent attributes being derivable from said plurality of independent attributes based on a plurality of constraints; storing said configuration model in a repository, together with disk images, resource configuration details, and logical names of pertinent ones of said existing machines; obtaining specifications of new values of said independent attributes; computing new values of said dependent attributes from said new values of said independent attributes, based on executing said constraints on said configuration model; and deploying said images onto a plurality of new machines for operation in accordance with said new values of said independent attributes and said new values of said dependent attributes, to obtain a re-deployed solution.