Patent ID: 7673040

Claim:
A system for monitoring performance of a service provider, the system comprising: a memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions; a computer processor that executes the computer-executable instructions; a monitoring component that monitors the service provider's compliance with a service level agreement metric that is measured in accordance with a probe, the monitoring component being independent of a client and the service provider and being in communication with a network apart from the client and the service provider; and instructions for calculating a value of the probe by intercepting and evaluating a communication in the network between the client and the service provider without having to query the service provider for monitoring data, wherein the instructions enable the monitoring component to calculate the value of the probe without examining the contents of the communication; the metric is measured in accordance with an incoming probe and an outgoing probe, the incoming probe having a value that is calculating by intercepting and evaluating a service request from the client to the service provider, the outgoing probe having a value that is calculating by intercepting and evaluating a service response from the service provider to the client.