1. A computer implemented method for storing in a computer system, and for providing access to, status information relating to one or more monitored systems, the method comprising: accepting status information from a set of provider processes performed by computer memory; creating and defining one or more nodes in a tree data structure and defining content for selected nodes in the tree data structure based on the status information accepted; accepting requests from a set of consumer processes for obtaining selected information from the nodes in the tree data structure; and providing the selected information to the consumer processes by accessing the content of specified nodes in the tree data structure, wherein defining content for selected nodes in the tree data structure comprises defining information in a control block and in a set of export information data for each node in the selected nodes, the control block comprising data defining characteristics of the node and comprising an export variable, and the set of export information data comprising, a variable number of defining elements and for each defining element in the set of defining elements and an associated list of export data items, each defining element and associated list of items having a corresponding export information type specified by the export variable in the control block and selected from the defined set of export information types, and wherein defining information in a set of export information data comprises defining data to conform to types in the defined set of export information types, the types in the defined set of export information types comprising, an identifier type for identifying a node; a set of local property types for specifying status information; a set of base property types for specifying status information; a dependent node type for identifying dependent nodes in the tree data structure; a parent node type for identifying the parent node in the tree data structure; a parent node type for identifying dependent nodes in the tree data structure; a provider type for specifying a provider process associated with a node; and a node control service type for specifying a service accessible by a consumer process for carrying out processing related to the node.