1. A method of gathering network traffic for analysis of undesirable trends comprising: defining a plurality of tiers for gathering network traffic, each of the plurality of tiers having a temporal scale and spatial scale independent of the others of the plurality of tiers, the temporal scale defining the timing of observed packets and the spatial scale defining a scope of analysis performed on observed packets, the plurality of tiers including a network element tier for gathering and analyzing events at a line speed of the network traffic, and an aggregate tier for gathering and analyzing events from multiple sources; gathering according to the temporal scale of the plurality of the tiers, data from the network traffic, the gathered data defining a plurality of events; analyzing, according to the spatial scale of at least one of the tiers, the gathered network data, analyzing including analyzing according to the plurality of spatial scales from which the analyzed data was gathered; determining, based on the analyzing, if the analyzed data indicates an alert, the alert indicative of remedial operations; and generating, if an alert is indicated, a responsive action directed to the indicated remedial operations, the network element tier comprising sensors, the sensors specialized for a predetermined purpose, and gathering comprises gathering a portion of the network data, the gathered portion predetermined according to a particular sensor deployed in the respective network element and directed to an event defined by a single condition.