Performance measurement and service quality monitoring system and process for an information system

• US 6,055,493 A
• Filed: 01/29/1998
• Issued: 04/25/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: InfoVista SAS
• Original Assignee: InfoVista S.A.
• Inventors: Ries, Alain, Stopnicki, Manuel, Mathieu, Loic
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoff, Marc S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): MILLER, CRAIG S
• Application Number:
  US09/015,659
• Time in Patent Office: 817 Days
• Field of Search: 395/200.54, 395/200.53, 395/837, 395/838, 395/183.02, 395/183.15, 371/20.1, 702/182, 702/186, 702/187, 702/189, 702/188
• US Class Current: 702/186
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/328 Computer systems status display G06F11/327 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3447 Performance evaluation by modeling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/805 Real-time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0233 Object-oriented techniques, for representation of network management data, e.g. common object request broker architecture [CORBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5032 Generating service level reports

Abstract

Process for measuring performance and monitoring service quality of an information system, this process comprising a process for acquiring data within the information system, a process for processing the data and calculating Indicators, and a supply of reports on the performance and/or the service quality within this information system. It further comprises a process for homogenizing acquired data originating from various data sources, in particular: 1) data acquired by real-time polling; 2) data, in particular continuous or discrete data or events, acquired in real time from an external source; and 3) data, in particular continuous or discrete data or events, acquired in deferred time from an external source.

Claims

1. Process for measuring performance and monitoring service quality of an information system, this process comprising:

a process for acquiring data within the information system,

a process for processing said data and calculating Indicators, and

supply of reports on the performance and/or the service quality within this information system,

characterized in that it also comprises a process for homogenizing acquired data originating from various data sources, in particular;

1) data acquired by real-time polling

2) data, in particular continuous or discrete data (events), acquired in real time from an external source, and

3) data, in particular continuous or discrete data (events), acquired in deffered time from an external source.

2. Process according to claim 1, wherein said homogenization process comprises a stage known as a polling abstraction stage, to group data acquired in real time from various data sources, and a stage known as an acquisition abstraction stage, to homogenize (i):

real-time data originating from the polling abstraction stage and (ii);

deferred-time acquisition data.

3. Process according to claim 2, wherein the respective polling abstraction and acquisition abstraction stages are respectively implemented in the form of a first polling abstraction software layer and a second acquisition abstraction layer.

4. Process according to claim 1, wherein an Indicator contains a plurality of Formulas, and the processing process includes, for each Indicator requested, a dynamic choice process of a Formula from a plurality of Formulas associated with this Indicator, in order to choose an optimal formula for computing said Indicator.

5. Process according to claim 4, wherein the dynamic choice of a Formula is achieved in function of the nature of the Instance for which said Indicator is requested, and/or of the right operation of said Formula on said Instance, and/or of priority conditions within said plurality of Formulas.

6. Process according to claim 5, wherein the Indicators are multidimensional.

7. Process according to claim 6, characterized in that the multidimensional Indicators are computed by associative computing methods.

8. Process according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises a modelling stage of the information system for tying said Indicators to objects of the information system.

9. Process according to claim 8, characterized in that the dimensions of the Indicators correspond to groups of Instances of the information system and/or of sub-objects of said Instances.

10. Process according to claim 8, characterized in that it further comprises a process for historically storing the Indicators, and/or modifications of the Instances of the information system.

11. Process according to claim 10, wherein the history storing process makes use of data warehousing techniques.

12. Process according to claim 1, wherein said processed and generated objects are stored in an object database that can be accessed for any future consultation.

13. System for measuring performance and monitoring service quality of an information system, implementing the process according to any of preceding claims, this system comprising:

means for modelling and collecting data within the information system,

means for processing collected data and supplying service quality indicators, and

means to generate reports and/or graphs from these indicators,

characterised in that it further comprises means for homogenizing acquired data from various data sources, said homogenized data being further converted into Variables used for computing Indicators.