DETERMINING AND USING CAPABILITIES OF A COMPUTER SYSTEM

Techniques and tools for rating computer products, and communicating the rating between users, manufactures, vendors, and/or testing organizations, are described. A rating for hardware, software, clusters of computers, servers, and other computing products can be determined by comparing the system's attributes, capabilities, and features with rating requirements. A rating level is determined for the computer products based on a set of requirements and analysis of the products (e.g., by a computer running a rating tool). Once the computer product is rated, its “score” can be compared to other computing products to determine compatibility.