Patent ID: 7502846

Claim:
A method comprising: managing, by a monitoring service system of a monitoring service provider, via a network, a plurality of computer systems of one of a plurality of subscriber enterprises subscribing for monitoring service provided by the monitoring service provider, the monitoring service provider and the one of the subscriber enterprises being different enterprise entities, each of the computer systems having a current operating image and being capable of receiving a replacement operating image while operating with the current operating image, and the managing including periodically transmitting the replacement operating image through the network to each of the computer systems while each of the computer systems is operating with the current operating image, and causing the computer systems to switch to operate with the replacement operating image as the current operating image; receiving, by the monitoring service system, through the network, data associated with one or more system metrics from the plurality of computer systems; contextually analyzing, by the monitoring service system, the received data in view of prior received data of the one or more system metrics of (A) said computer systems and (B) one or more other computer systems of one or more other subscriber enterprises; and determining, by the monitoring service system of the monitoring service provider, based at least in part on the results of the contextual analysis, whether an alert related to at least a one of the one or more system metrics should be sent; and sending the alert or causing the alert to be sent, by the monitoring service system, if it is determined that the alert should be sent; wherein the managing further comprises transmitting a replacement operating image to one or more computer systems based on contextual analysis of data received from one or more other computer systems.