1. A computer-based method of defining a model of an information processing system, comprising: defining a set of discovery instructions configured to discover first snapshot data via a computer communications network about hardware and/or software resources within said information processing system, including a client and a server computer system, wherein said model: defines a set of components of said information processing system, the set being a subset of said resources needed to deploy an instance of an application, defines properties of said components, and provides said discovery instructions to said application to discover first said snapshot data about a state of said properties; and executing on a computer system a software program configured to provide visualization and analysis of said information processing system based on said first snapshot data wherein said analysis includes at least one of: loading and comparing a second snapshot data to said first snapshot data, loading an analysis overlay and using said analysis overlay to evaluate said first snapshot data.
3. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein each of the instructions is configured to request a specified datum associated with a specified one of said resources.