Abstract: A distributed computing system includes a number of computers, workstations or other computing machines interconnected by a network. One or more service managers are introduced that provide a management interface to corresponding middleware services. The service manager monitors the corresponding middleware service, as well as the underlying distributed computer environment on which an application process that utilizes the middleware service is executing, and allows the middleware service to operate more efficiently, in response to run-time environmental conditions. A fault-tolerance service manager is provided as a management interface to a fault-tolerance service. The fault-tolerance service manager monitors the fault-tolerance service, as well as the underlying distributed computer environment, to make globally optimal decisions, based on run-time environmental data, and to provide the resulting information to the fault-tolerance service.