A system and method for processing application performance using application phase differentiation and detection is disclosed. Phase detection may be accomplished in a number of different ways, including by using a deterministic algorithm that looks for changes in the computing resource utilization patterns (as detected in the performance data collected). Machine learning (ML) and neural networks (e.g. sparse auto encoder SAE) may also be used. Performance data is aggregated according to phase and stored in a database along with additional application and computing system information. This database may then be used to find similar applications for performance prediction.