A method of monitoring applications running on a virtual server in a container on a server, wherein the container provides a runtime environment for the applications and includes: (a) one or more runtime environment components that facilitate processing of service requests for the applications, and (b) one or more application context managers to invoke one or more respective applications in response to receiving a service request for an application from a user, the method comprising: maintaining, at the request of an application context manager, a counter for each of one or more operational statistics, wherein the operational statistics are for one or more components of an application; collecting, by the application context manager, the one or more operational statistics represented by the counters, wherein the application context manager collects the statistics by invoking objects which execute methods for querying the various components that maintain said statistics, and wherein the step of collecting the operational statistics includes collecting at least one of the following for the one or more application components: a count of a number of service invocations experienced by each of the one or more application components during running of the application; a count of a number of service exceptions experienced by each of the one or more application components during running of the application; and a count of a number of service errors experienced by each of the one or more application components during running of the application; updating, each time the one or more operational statistics are collected, an aggregation of each of the one or more operational statistics, wherein the statistics are collected in aggregate form at the application level from the one or more application components, or at the application component level; storing the aggregations for access by a statistical presentation agent; making the operational statistics available in real-time for dynamic resource allocation; and performing such dynamic resource allocation based on the operational statistics. maintaining, at the request of an application context manager, a counter for each of one or more operational statistics, wherein the operational statistics are for one or more components of an application; collecting, by the application context manager, the one or more operational statistics represented by the counters, wherein the application context manager collects the statistics by invoking objects which execute methods for querying the various components that maintain said statistics, and wherein the step of collecting the operational statistics includes collecting at least one of the following for the one or more application components: a count of a number of service invocations experienced by each of the one or more application components during running of the application; a count of a number of service exceptions experienced by each of the one or more application components during running of the application; and a count of a number of service errors experienced by each of the one or more application components during running of the application; a count of a number of service invocations experienced by each of the one or more application components during running of the application; a count of a number of service exceptions experienced by each of the one or more application components during running of the application; and a count of a number of service errors experienced by each of the one or more application components during running of the application; updating, each time the one or more operational statistics are collected, an aggregation of each of the one or more operational statistics, wherein the statistics are collected in aggregate form at the application level from the one or more application components, or at the application component level; storing the aggregations for access by a statistical presentation agent; making the operational statistics available in real-time for dynamic resource allocation; and performing such dynamic resource allocation based on the operational statistics.