Patent ID: 7308687

Claim:
A method of managing an application environment having an operating state according to an operating objective, the application environment having a computing resource with a characteristic representative of an operating state of the computing resource, said method comprising: (a) determining a future operating state of the application environment based on a current status of the characteristic of the computing resource, wherein such step includes: estimating a future time-varying status of the characteristic based on a time-varying component of the current status; estimating a future time stationary status of the characteristic based on a time stationary component of the current status; combining the future time-varying status and the future time stationary status to form a future status of the characteristic; and determining a response of the application environment to the future status of the characteristic, wherein the future operating state of the application environment is based on the response; (b) determining a difference between the future operating state of the application environment and the operating objective; (c) generating a selected set of changes to the application environment for reducing the difference; and (d) repeating steps (a) to (c) to monitor the future operating state of the application environment.