In a managed information environment, such as a storage area network, a management application typically monitors and controls a plurality of manageable entities such as storage array devices. The manageable entities may emanate from multiple providers, or vendors, each having dissimilar interfaces and parameters. A common object model operable to normalize and represent device specific parameters that define a plurality of dissimilar manageable entities such as storage array devices enables interrogation and manipulation of the dissimilar storage devices for performing management and control via the management application. The management application selects, based on the device type, a representation in the common object model enumerating the device specific parameters of the storage device. Enumeration may involve identifying corresponding attributes between the device specific parameters and the attributes of the common object model, and copying, translating, or converting the corresponding fields. In this manner, the management application normalizes and performs manipulations of the dissimilar storage devices using the common object model.