A monitoring system comprising a plurality of computers (PC1, PC2) in a network, a plurality of monitoring devices (2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 12) and a plurality of drivers (GDS) configured for the monitoring devices (2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 12), each driver (GDS) communicating with the network through a designated channel, each channel configured to be run on any of a plurality of the computers (PC1, PC2) in the network, wherein there is assigned to each channel a predefined order of priority in which an active computer (PC1, PC2) of the network is selected for running the channel and wherein the order of priority assigned to each channel varies between channels and wherein, in use, when the highest priority available computer (PC1, PC2) for any given channel is inactive, the given channel switches to the next highest priority available computer (PC1, PC2) which is active.