Patent ID: 7962613

Claim:
A system comprising: a processor configured to: obtain a resource utilization of a first server and a second server, the first server configured to provide a first service to a plurality of users, the second server configured to provide the first service and a second service to the users, and the first server having a lower resource cost for providing the first service to the users than the second server, wherein the first server is a preferred server, and the second server is a non-preferred server; modify an allocation scheme based on the resource utilization of the first and second servers, the allocation scheme indicating requests for the first service are directed to the first server and requests for the second service are directed to the second server, and the allocation scheme including a redirect probability for directing a request for the first service to the second server instead of the first server, wherein modifying the allocation scheme includes increasing the redirect probability when the resource utilization of the first server is above an overload threshold and reducing the redirect probability when the resource utilization of the first server is below an under-utilization threshold; and wherein a plurality of requests from the users are distributed between the first and second servers according to the allocation scheme wherein the number of requests for the first service directed to the second server is proportional to the redirect probability.