1. A method of providing a data service, comprising: (a) providing a processor; (b) providing a memory interoperably coupled to the processor and having computer software code stored thereon; and (c) using the processor and the memory in combination to perform the following: (c)(1) identifying at least one request or response expected to occur and a given action to take upon an occurrence of a given request or response; (c)(2) for the given action identified in step (c)(1), storing at least one data event generated as a function of the given action; and (c)(3) for the least one data event stored in step (c)(2), processing and consolidating the at least one data event with a concatenation operation; wherein the processing and consolidating of the at least one data event results in a continuous, application-aware, data stream comprising a sequence of application consistent checkpoints; wherein a given application consistent checkpoint is associated with information identifying the at least one data event, metadata, and at least one data change; and wherein the processing includes determining whether a given data event of the at least one data event signifies a given application consistent checkpoint of the sequence of application consistent checkpoints and, if not, holding the given data event until the given data event is subsequently associated with the given application consistent checkpoint.