Patent ID: 8286177

Claim:
A system comprising; adjustment logic to adjust an allocation of a first hardware resource to support a running software application; measurement logic to measure at least one hardware resource metric associated with the first hardware resource; wherein the at least one hardware resource metric includes a peak and an average hardware resource metric; and service level logic to calculate an application service level based on the measured at least one hardware resource metric; wherein when the application service level satisfies a threshold application service level, the allocation of the first hardware resource is iteratively reduced to reach a reduced allocation level where the application service level does not satisfy the threshold application service level, and in response thereto, the allocation of the first hardware resource is increased by an increment, such that the application service level again satisfies the threshold application service level; wherein the increment is less than a reduction amount associated with a previous iterative reduction that resulted in the application service level not satisfying the threshold application service level; wherein the at least one hardware resource metric is periodically measured and wherein a polling interval separates each of a plurality of the periodic measurements.