design advice sought

[Byron Morgan]

My project:

An existing server taps the logged output of a real-time control system,
making the data available via inet.
Platform is Python 2.2.2 on W2k.

My application (my first effort in Python) monitors the data stream,
watching for critical events as well as maintaining status information on
roughly 100 control subsystems. I have reached the point where it does this
much pretty well, running all day. Next, I will add functions to send
messages via various transports (e.g., pager, cellular text, instant
mesaging) based on conditions and trends detected or analyzed.

I am seeking input on whether I should build all into a single app, which
may necessitate the use of threading, or use one or more companion apps to
handle the notification stuff. If separate applications are used, how best
to communicate (I assume sockets will do, but have no experience with this,
or with threads).

TIA,

Byron Morgan