Method and system for managing performance of data transfers for a data access system

A performance management system for managing a data access system configured to transfer data over a communication network between a server system and a plurality of user sites in response to requests from the user sites, the performance management system comprising:

• means for monitoring a network browser of a first user site of the plurality of user sites to obtain performance data of the data access system, the performance data including performance metrics of a data transfer operation in the data access system performed in response to a network browser request initiated by a user of the first user site, the monitoring means including a monitoring agent resident at the first user site configured to transmit data indicative of the performance data;
• means for creating preliminary summary data of the monitored performance data;
• means for receiving data indicative of the preliminary summary data transmitted from the monitoring agent;
• means for collecting a quantity of the data received;
• means for summarizing the quantity of the data collected to produce summarized performance data, wherein the summarizing comprises correlating the collected data with one or more factors of interest to produce one or more different types of summarized performance data;
• and
• means for storing the summarized performance data into a database;
• and
• means for utilizing the stored summarized performance data as a basis for ascertaining quality of service conditions of the data access system.

A performance management system that monitors data transferred between at least one remote site and at least one user site, comprising:

• a network browser disposed on a first user site of the at least one user site and configured to browse the at least one remote site, in response to a request by a user of the first site, for transferring data between the at least one remote site and the first user site;
• a client that resides on the first user site of the at least one user site and is configured to collect performance data including performance metrics of a data transfer operation initiated by a network browser request, initiated by a user of the first site, from the network browser, the data transfer operation effecting data transfer between the first user site and the at least one remote site, the performance data being associated with individual web page object retrievals;
• and
• an agent in communication with the client and residing on the first user site, the agent being adapted to create preliminary summary data of the performance data, wherein the preliminary summary data includes summaries of at least the individual web page object retrievals from the at least one remote site, wherein at least a portion of the preliminary summary data is correlated with one or more factors of interest to produce one or more different types of summarized performance data.

A performance management system that monitors data transferred between at least one remote site and at least one user site, comprising:

• a network browser disposed on a first user site of the at least one user site and configured to browse the at least one remote site, in response to a request by a user of the first site, for transferring data between the at least one remote site and the first user site;
• and
• a client application residing on the first user site of the at least one user site, the client application comprising:
• a data gathering module that is adapted to collect performance data of data transfer operations that effect data transfer between the first user site and the at least one remote site initiated by network browser requests initiated by a user of the first user site, the performance data including at least communication data indicative of network performance statistics for data transfers and application data indicative of application performance statistics of the network browser, the performance data being associated with individual web page object retrievals;
• and
• an agent that is adapted to create preliminary summary data from at least the performance data for transmission to at least one server from the client application, wherein the preliminary summary data includes summaries of at least the individual web page object retrievals from the at least one remote site, wherein at least a portion of the preliminary summary data is correlated with one or more factors of interest to produce one or more different types of summarized performance data.