Method and system are disclosed for automatically discovering associations between applications and data in multi-tiered distributed systems. The method in one aspect uses a machine-readable specification of a model or template that describes use and transformation of data by software components. The method additionally utilizes a model of system configuration and appropriate runtime support to mine information available from systems management software present in enterprise systems. The application-data association discovery process performs a traversal of the distributed system configuration graph with actions taken during this traversal driven by the contents of the templates for the software components present in the system. The results of the application-data association discovery process are stored in a database and may be used to specify application-specific information lifecycle management (ILM) policy or as input to impact analysis tools in access control and antivirus systems.