Accordingly, the present invention provides a novel solution for providing intelligent application management such as, for example, for ranking and decommissioning software applications. One or more data sources associated with each of a plurality of applications may be identified in a computing system. Each of the plurality of applications may be ranked according to a degree of importance, a degree of correlation, or a combination thereof in relation to the one or more data sources. Each of the plurality of applications may be retained or decommissioned/removed according to the ranking.

The present invention enables the use of natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI) APIs and other machine learning tools for intelligent application management. In one example, an instance of IBM? Watson? NLP may be used (IBM? and Watson? are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation). An instance of IBM? Watson? API may also be provided. The aspects of IBM? Watson? that the described method and system makes use of are the technologies behind IBM? Watson? Natural Language Understanding. However, other NLP technologies or services may be used to provide the extracted metadata as described herein.

It is understood in advance that although this disclosure includes a detailed description on cloud computing, implementation of the teachings recited herein are not limited to a cloud computing environment. Rather, embodiments of the present invention are capable of being implemented in conjunction with any other type of computing environment now known or later developed.