Managing computer-system resources in the shared platform and the dedicated platform is challenging. As a Web site becomes more popular and is sought after by millions of Internet users, the Web site demands more and more system resources. Being able to measure, monitor, and manage the amount of system resources is essential for Web-site availability and server performance.

Critical system resources to manage include the following:

• central processing unit (CPU) utilization
• memory utilization
• disk-swap space
• disk space
• disk input and output
• network input and output
• Internet bandwidth (not a computer-system resource but still requires monitoring and managing)

These critical system resources have a direct relationship with the performance of a specific Web site. A Web site can be created or modified to minimize the demand on these system resources. Some Web sites are developed without the consideration of system-resource utilization. When a Web site contains and executes a common gateway interface CGI script, CPU resources are demanded. If the Web site contains a large number of CGI scripts and requires these scripts to be executed by every Web-site visitor, then CPU resources become a major bottleneck and cause the Web site to appear slow. It is important for the Web-site designer and developer to balance system-resource demands with Web-site functionality and creativity.

To measure, monitor, and manage the computer-system resources, additional software must be installed on the computer system. Each type of computer system hardware requires specific software for resource management. The computer-system manufacturer and operating system–software developer should be able to identify the necessary software applications for measuring, monitoring, and managing the system resources for their specific computer systems.