The present invention provides a method, data processing system and
computer program product for providing a data stream transform service,
for example for transforming a data stream into a format suitable for
printing. A data-stream is divided into one or more work units, each work
unit is provided to one or more transform engines to transform the work
unit into the required format, and each transform engine is monitored
whilst transforming a work unit. By monitoring each transform engine
details of, for example, resource usage are obtained which may be used to
calculate a fee to charge a client for performing transformation of a
data stream, and/or failure of a transform engine can be detected and
corrective action taken should a transform engine fail.