prototype could be improved and made more flexible than the current URL sub string 

matching  

The use of a database to store the SLAs and other Xml structured data may have been 

inappropriate and perhaps inefficient as it necessitated parsing various XML structures 

and the inserting them into database tables. This information had then to be accessed 

later by using SQL. One option would be to store the services list and SLAs on the file 

system of the host the proxy runs on instead of a local database. Then XQL could be 

used for data retrieval and filtering of the SLAs and services list. The bases parameters 

that are captured for each request and reply could also be written to a flat file in XML 

format and again XQL

1

 could be use to calculate derived parameters.  

6.5.3 Final Conclusions 

The conclusions that can be drawn from the body of research completed in this dissertation 

are: 

The use of a client side proxy for monitoring can be effective in capturing the 

performance and availability information of Web delivered services as perceived by the 

end user.  

Client side monitoring offers the ability to detect problems that cannot be detected on the 

server side such as failed attempts to connect to the service, due to network problems for 

example. 

Client side monitoring offers a more scalable solution for monitoring services. The 

overhead of monitoring to such detail on the server side may be excessive and impact the 

service. It may also be unnecessary as not all customers may require such detailed 

monitoring.  

The framework suggested does not require significant configuration by the Service 

Provider to allow Customers to use a Third Party for SLA verification (SLAVSP). As 

1

 The XQL Pattern syntax is simple yet provides powerful query capabilities. Its purpose is to identify a subset 

of an XML document based on ancestry chains, wildcards, and qualifiers such as attribute value tests. The 

syntax is concise and modeled after familiar methods for directory navigation. As a string based syntax it 

can reside within attribute values, script languages, and URLs .[22] 

a

a

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