1. A method of managing access to performance data of a driver running in an operating system kernel, comprising: recording driver performance data within the kernel over a predetermined interval of time marked by a timer running within the kernel; after expiration of the timer, performing a collecting operation within the kernel to collect the recorded performance data; transferring the collected performance data to a persistence manager outside the kernel; performing additional collecting operations within the kernel to collect performance data at a rate substantially equal to the inverse of the predetermined interval of time; and temporarily persisting, in the kernel, results of the additional collecting operations.