Solution resources determination and provisioning

1. A method for solution resources determination and provisioning comprising:

in a target compute system residing in a network of interconnected compute systems, assigning a unique identifier to a requested solution;

receiving a user preference regarding preferred components for solutions;

determining a list of possible providers for the requested solution by querying a provider registry;

selecting a provider for providing identified components of the requested solution from the list of possible providers;

recursively determining additional providers for providing sub-components of the identified components;

building a first component tree and a second component tree of identified components and sub-components to achieve the requested solution, wherein the first component tree and the second component tree comprise different identified components and sub-components for the requested solution;

selecting the first component tree or the second component tree based on the user preference;

storing identifications of the selected provider and the additional providers associated with the selected component tree, along with the identified components and sub-components in a hierarchical data structure in a memory of the target compute system, each of the identified components and sub-components defining a set of required resources; and

installing the identified components and sub-components listed in the hierarchical data structure.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the hierarchical data structure is a tree comprising a root system representing the solution identifier and leaf systems representing identified components.

3. A method for solution resources determination and provisioning comprising:

in a network of interconnected compute systems, selecting, from a provider registry containing a list of possible provider compute systems for a requested solution, one of the provider compute systems as a target system to install the requested solution;

identifying required components of the requested solution;

identifying a provider that can satisfy the required components;

recursively determining additional providers for providing sub-components of the required components;

building a first component tree and a second component tree of required components and sub-components to achieve the requested solution, wherein the first component tree and the second component tree comprise different collections of required components and sub-components;

selecting the first component tree or the second component tree based on a user preference;

storing identifications of the identified providers and additional providers associated with the selected component tree, along with the required components and sub-components in a hierarchical data structure in a memory of the target system, each of the required components and sub-components defining a set of required resources; and

installing the required components and sub-components listed in the hierarchical data structure.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the hierarchical data structure is a tree comprising a root system representing the solution identifier and leaf systems representing identified required components and associated providers.

5. A computer program product for solution resources determination and provisioning, tangibly embodied in a machine-readable storage device, the computer program product being operable to cause data processing apparatus to:

in a target compute system residing in a network of interconnected compute systems, assign a unique identifier to a requested solution;

receive a user preference regarding preferred components for solutions;

determine a list of possible providers for the requested solution by querying a provider registry;

select a provider for satisfying identified components of the requested solution from the list of possible providers;

recursively determine additional providers for proving sub-components of the identified components;

build a first component tree and a second component tree of identified components and sub-components to achieve the requested solution, wherein the first component tree and the second component tree comprise different collections of identified components and sub-components;

select the first component tree or the second component tree based on the user preference;

store identifications of the selected provider and the additional providers associated with the selected component tree, along with the identified components and sub-components in a hierarchical data structure in a memory of the target compute system, each of the identified components and sub-components defining a set of required resources; and

install the identified components and sub-components listed in the hierarchical data structure.

6. The computer program product of claim 5 wherein the hierarchical data structure is a tree comprising a root system representing the solution identifier and leaf systems representing identified components.

7. An apparatus for solution resources determination and provisioning comprising:

in a network of interconnected compute systems, means for selecting, from a provider registry containing a list of possible provider systems for a requested solution, one of the provider systems as a target system to install the requested solution;

means for identifying required components of the requested solution;

means for identifying a provider having resources available to handle the required components;

means for recursively determining additional providers for providing sub-components of the required components;

means for building a first component tree and a second component tree of required components and sub-components to achieve the requested solution, wherein the first component tree and the second component tree comprise different collections of required components and sub-components;

means for selecting the first component tree or the second component tree based on a user preference;

means for storing identifications of the identified providers and additional providers associated with the selected component tree, along with the required components and sub-components in a hierarchical data structure in a memory of the target system, each of the required components and sub-components defining a set of required resources; and

means for installing the required components and sub-components listed in the hierarchical data structure.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the hierarchical data structure is a tree comprising a root system representing the solution identifier and leaf systems representing identified required components and associated providers.