Patent ID: 6934745

Claim:
A system allowing for centralized, network application performance management services, comprising: a wide area network maintained by a network service provider, a customer site comprising a first network, an access link between the wide area network and the first network of the customer site, a managed network operations center operably connected to the wide area network, the managed network operations center operative to monitor the wide area network, and, a bandwidth management device, residing at the customer site, and operably connected to the access link; wherein the bandwidth management device is operable to monitor network traffic traversing the access link in relation to bandwidth utilization and application performance and transmit data related to the network traffic to the managed network operations center; wherein the bandwidth management device is operable to control the outbound and inbound flow of network traffic across the access link based on a set of bandwidth management policies; and, wherein the managed network operations center is operable to apply to the bandwidth management device a set of bandwidth management policies based on application performance priorities received from the customer site; wherein the bandwidth management device comprises a customer portal facilitating configuration of the set of bandwidth management policies, and wherein the managed network operations center comprises a device manager server operative to receive configuration requests from the customer site and configure the set of bandwidth management policies on the bandwidth management device via the customer portal; and wherein the managed network operations center is operative to maintain a division between the bandwidth management policies configurable by the customer site and the bandwidth management policies configurable by the network service provider.