Patent ID: 7228371

Claim:
A system for collecting and analyzing hardware and software resource usage data from a plurality of computer workstations, comprising: a set of configurable computer software components running under control of the operating system on each of the said plurality of computer workstations, wherein each said set of configurable computer software components executes resource usage collection commands native to said operating system, collects said resource usage data, collects software and hardware component version data, and transmits said resource usage data and said version data to a centralized computer system; a set of computer software components and data storage components running under control of the operating system of said centralized computer system, wherein said resource usage data is received, aggregated, stored, cleansed, and analyzed; a set of computer software components and data storage components running under control of said operating system of said centralized computer system, wherein computer software and configuration files are transmitted to said plurality of computer workstations; wherein analyzing said hardware and software resource usage data is comprised of comparing individual hardware and software component usage with known limits; calculating resource usage values relative to capacity of each said hardware and software component; generating an upgrade decision for each said hardware and software component; calculating the aggregate resource usage value of aggregated hardware and software components; generating an upgrade decision for said aggregated hardware and software components; a set of computer software components and data storage components wherein a graphical interface is presented to build said configuration files, build a distribution list, add software and hardware performance data, and generate and view analysis results reports.