13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the hierarchical model is defined to comprise: a model table configured to comprise one or more attributes of the hierarchical model; a Node_Class table configured to comprise information related to types of nodes in the hierarchical model; and a Node table configured to comprise the definition of each node within the hierarchical model and corresponding hierarchy information.
11. A machine-implemented method of capturing, aggregating, and visualizing model structural data representing an information technology architecture, the method comprising: capturing and aggregating data according to a structured, hierarchical model which is adapted to provide a structured, hierarchical view of a model structure and to build a basic frame for analysis and visualization, the model being either a standardized model or a customer specific model; defining the structured hierarchical model to comprise tables of related records, which are associated by either strong links or loose links, wherein the strong links make use of Row-IDs, and are adapted to provide for every record having a foreign key relationship to a primary key of a record in another table, wherein the loose links make use of a row's Row-ID, and are adapted to provide for establishing a foreign key relationship to another table, wherein the models and their components are strongly coupled together by at least one strong link, and relationships between models are loosely coupled by one or more loose links adapted to allow that end points of the respective relationship are moveable within a model or are removable without forcing the relationship to be removed as well, wherein a generic representation of a model is represented by strong links between core model tables and graphical representation tables; and generating a plurality of different displays of the captured data according to the structured, hierarchical model.