1. A device for preparing a captured trace, the captured trace being stored for later use, of I/O workload activity experienced on one or more data storage volumes included with a data storage system for being analyzed by a computerized trace analysis process, the device comprising: a processor in communication with a memory containing software code, which when loaded into said processor enables said processor to execute the steps of: preparing the captured trace for being analyzed by categorizing information from the captured trace into categories related to (i) components in the data storage system experiencing the traced workload activity and (ii) information type including response times and task events; using the categories for access to trace-related information for trace analysis by the computerized trace analysis process; and presenting the categorized information from the captured trace on a display screen.