The system and method of the present invention enable the user to build and/or use an interactive visual instrument panel for monitoring and/or managing one or more target systems locally or remotely in real-time, with the instrument panel being configured based on the user-defined requirements and based on the attributes of the target system(s) being monitored and/or managed. In one embodiment of the present invention a novel data handling system is provided for ensuring that the target system is able to continuously transmit real-time data without any data loss and without interrupting its operation.