Collection and categorization of configuration data

1. A method of collecting configuration data, the method comprising:

searching for configuration data associated with an application;

searching for metadata associated with the configuration data;

detecting a change made to at least one of the configuration data;

storing the change and associated metadata in a storage device, the associated metadata corresponding to the at least one of the configuration data associated with the change;

categorizing the change based on the metadata;

identifying a number of occurrences of the categorized change;

assigning a rating to the categorized change, the rating being based on the number of occurrences of the categorized change; and

using the rating to assign a ranking to the categorized change relative to at least one additional categorized change, the ranking based on relative frequencies of the categorized changes.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the detection of the change comprises comparing at east two sets of the same configuration data collected at different times.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

identifying a number of occurrences of the at least one of the configuration data; and

assigning a configuration-data rating to the change based on the identified number of occurrences of the at least one of the configuration data.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein each metadatum is defined as a category, and wherein the categorization comprises grouping the change to at least one category.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the configuration data defines a setup of an application.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the storage device is located in a cloud computing system.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the categorization of the change includes grouping the change into a category defined by one or more metadata values.

8. An enterprise system comprising:

a number of enterprise applications;

a data crawler module in communication with the number of enterprise applications, the data crawler module having instructions that cause operations to be performed, the operations comprising:

searching for configuration data associated with the number of enterprise applications; and

searching for metadata associated with the configuration data; and

a configuration data collection module in communication with the number of enterprise applications, the configuration data collection module having instructions that cause operations to be performed, the operations comprising:

detecting a change made to at least one of the configuration data;

storing the change and associated metadata in a storage device, the associated metadata corresponding to the at least one of the configuration data associated with the change;

categorizing the change based on the metadata;

identifying a number of occurrences of the categorized change;

assigning a rating to the categorized change, the rating being based on the number of occurrences of the categorized change; and

using the rating to assign a ranking to the categorized change relative to at least one additional categorized change, the ranking being based on relative frequencies of the categorized changes.

9. The enterprise system of claim 8 , wherein the operation of detecting the change comprises comparing at least two sets of the same configuration data collected at different times.

10. The enterprise system of claim 8 , wherein the configuration data collection module having instructions that cause operations to be performed, the operations further comprising:

identifying a number of occurrences of the at least one of the configuration data; and

assigning a configuration-data rating to the change based on the identified number of occurrences of the at least one of the configuration data.

11. The enterprise system of claim 8 , wherein each metadatum is defined as a category, and wherein the categorization comprises grouping the change to at least one category.

12. The enterprise system of claim 8 , wherein the configuration data defines a setup of an application.

13. The enterprise system of claim 8 , wherein the number of enterprise applications is located in an application layer of a cloud computing system.

14. The enterprise system of claim 8 , wherein the number of enterprise applications are associated with different organizations.

15. A non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium that stores instructions, which, when performed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

searching for configuration data associated with an application;

searching for metadata associated with the configuration data;

detecting a change made to at least one of the configuration data;

storing the change and associated metadata in a storage device, the associated metadata corresponding to the at least one of the configuration data associated with the change;

categorizing the change based on the metadata;

identifying a number of occurrences of the categorized change;

assigning a rating to the categorized change, the rating being based on the number of occurrences of the categorized change; and

using the rating to assign a ranking to the categorized change relative to at least one additional categorized change, the ranking being based on relative frequencies of the categorized changes.

16. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the operation of detecting the change comprises comparing at least two sets of the same configuration data collected at different times.

17. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the instructions further cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

identifying a number of occurrences of the at least one of the configuration data; and

assigning a configuration-data rating to the change based on the identified number of occurrences of the at least one of the configuration data.

18. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein each metadatum is defined as a category, and wherein the categorization comprises grouping the change to at least one category.

19. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the configuration data defines a setup of an application.

20. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the application is located in an application layer of a cloud computing system.

21. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 15 , the operations further comprising storing the configuration data in the storage device.

22. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the categorization of the change includes grouping the change into a category defined by one or more metadata values.