Patent ID: 9722945
Date: 2017-08-01
CPC Classifications: G06F,H04L

Claim:
1. A computer-implemented method for auto-scaling cloud resources in order to increase or decrease the number of virtual machine (VM) instances used to meet a current computing load being handled by a service, the computer-implemented method being performed by one or more processors executing computer executable instructions for the computer-implemented method, and the computer-implemented the method comprising acts of: periodically accessing information at given intervals, wherein the accessed information comprises: for at least one given measured performance metric, obtaining a per-capita load (PCL) by dividing the given measured performance metric by the number of VM instances being used to meet the computing load of the service; accessing a user-defined per-capita target threshold (PCTT) representing an amount of the computing load each VM instance is to handle for the given performance metric; determining a scaling action to be taken, but without flapping the VM instances by causing them to enter an undesirable cycle of alternately removing and then adding the same number of VM instances until the current computing load changes, by performing the following: when determined, performing the scaling action as indicated by the calculated delta value.