Patent ID: 8327364

Claim:
A method of collecting data from a plurality of different sources by a data processing system executing a plurality of data retrieval jobs, wherein each of the data is collected from the plurality of different sources by a respective one of the plurality of data retrieval jobs having a respective data retrieval time, the method comprising steps performed by the data processing system of: building at least two data retrieval job execution lists by placing each of the plurality of data retrieval jobs in one of the at least two data retrieval job execution lists and ordering the data retrieval jobs within each of the lists in an order of decreasing data retrieval times; and executing, in the order of decreasing data retrieval times, the data retrieval jobs in the at least two data retrieval job execution lists to collect the data from the plurality of different sources, wherein the data retrieval jobs are executed in parallel by at least two concurrent threads, with each thread assigned to each of the at least two data retrieval job list.