Portable infrastructure object for capturing machine images

A computer program product for capturing an image of a machine, comprising:

• a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied in the medium, the computer readable program code comprising:
• computer readable program code to create a snapshot of the machine, said snapshot including full machine encapsulation;
• computer readable program code to query one or more disks on the machine to obtain information stored on the one or more disks;
• computer readable program code to create metadata able to access one or more files, one or more folders, and one or more applications on the machine;
• and
• computer readable program code to capture the snapshot, the obtained information and the metadata in the image,
• wherein the image is a hardware-independent transferrable object, and wherein the computer readable program code to capture further comprises:
• computer readable program code to perform a backup of the machine using the snapshot;
• and
• computer readable program code to store the backup of the machine, the snapshot, the information stored on the one or more disks, and the metadata in the object.

A system for capturing an image of a machine, comprising:

• a processor;
• one or more disks;
• and
• a module to create a snapshot of the machine, said snapshot including full machine encapsulation, to query the one or more disks to obtain information stored on the one or more disks, to create metadata able to access one or more files, one or more folders, and one or more applications on the machine, and to capture the snapshot, the obtained information and the metadata in the image,
• wherein the image is a hardware-independent transferrable object, and wherein the module is to capture the image by performing a backup of the machine using the snapshot, and storing the backup of the machine, the snapshot, the information stored on the one or more disks, and the metadata in the object.