Patent ID: 8219998

Claim:
A method for load balancing of computing tasks in a computing system using temporarily inactive computing machines in the performance of the computing tasks and comprising the steps of: identifying the temporarily inactive computing machines that may be available for load balancing operations; determining which of the temporarily inactive computing machines quality for load balancing operations, by determining an amount of continuous time each temporarily inactive computing machine will be inactive; and determining a security level of each temporarily inactive computing machine, the security level being based on a sensitivity level of computing tasks performed on each temporarily inactive computing machine, a sensitivity level of data stored on each temporarily inactive computing machine and the function of a user of each temporarily inactive computing machine; securing the current configuration of each temporarily inactive computing machine that qualifies for the load balancing operations; prioritizing the qualifying computing machines for use during the load balancing operations; managing a computing load of the prioritized computing machines on the computing system and assigning the computing tasks to the prioritized computing machines as part of the load balancing operations; and installing the secured current configuration for each prioritized computing machine at the completion of the load balancing operations.