Patent ID: 7444395

Claim:
A method of providing a centralized collection and event data handling mechanism in a Window Management Instrumentation (WMI) environment, the method comprising: receiving all event data generated and represented in a common event data format by a plurality of event providers comprising at least a first and a second event provider in a network, the first and second event providers being different from each other, the plurality of event providers comprising components and applications of different types in the network; determining, in accordance with one or more event handling policies, which of a plurality of event consumers handle the received event data, the plurality of event consumers comprising at least a first and a second event consumer, the first and second event consumers being different from each other, the plurality of event consumers comprising components and applications of different types in the network; and sending the event data to the plurality of event consumers for direct handling by the plurality of event consumers without altering the common event data format in which the event data is represented; wherein: the WMI is an implementation of Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) that provides uniform access to management information throughout an enterprise; an extensible common information model (CIM) is utilized to encapsulate managed objects, the managed objects comprising each of the plurality of event providers and each of the plurality of event consumers in the WMI environment; the CIM is defined by a Managed Object Format (MOF) language as an extensible data model for representing the managed objects in the WMI environment and the CIM is implemented by one or more WMI classes; and the common event data format is implemented by the one or more WMI classes to encapsulate all event data from the managed objects.