A system is provided for clustering events. At least one engine is configured to receive message data from managed infrastructure that includes managed infrastructure physical hardware that supports the flow and processing of information. The at least one engine is configured to determine common characteristics of events and produce clusters of events relating to the failure of errors in the managed infrastructure. Membership in a cluster indicates a common factor of the events that is a failure or an actionable problem in the physical hardware managed infrastructure directed to supporting the flow and processing of information. The at least one engine is configured to create one or more situations that is a collection of one or more events or alerts representative of the actionable problem in the managed infrastructure. A situation room includes a collaborative interface (UI) for decomposing events from managed infrastructures. In response to the production of the clusters one or more physical changes is made in managed infrastructure hardware. A reference tool provides for a decomposition of events.