Patent ID: 7779413

Claim:
A program execution reservation method of assigning necessary resources to programs based on a program reservation information management table in which each of the programs is associated with program reservation information comprising a necessary resource quantity for execution of the program and an execution scheduled time period, the method comprising: receiving program reservation information for a first program via a terminal comprising an entered necessary resource quantity and an entered execution scheduled time period, and in response thereto, referring to a free resource quantity management table comprising available resource quantities and associated respective time periods, acquiring an available resource quantity based on the entered execution scheduled time period and determining whether the available resource quantity acquired is at or above the entered necessary resource quantity; when it is determined that the available resource quantity acquired is at or above the entered necessary resource quantity, then subtracting the entered necessary resource quantity from the available resource quantity acquired, storing a result of the subtracting as a new value for the available resource quantity into the free resource quantity management table, and writing the received program reservation information to update an entry in the program reservation information management table corresponding to the first program; and at a start time of the entered execution scheduled time period corresponding to the first program, referring to a resource use status management table for a plurality of resources, wherein each resource is associated with information about whether or not it is being used, and restrictively assigning the first program a same number of particular resources equal to the entered necessary resource quantity corresponding to the first program that is stored in the updated program reservation information management table, the assigning of the particular resources being made from among resources available at the start time of the entered execution scheduled time period, wherein the entered necessary resource quantity is a number of computers as resources, wherein the resources are located among a plurality of data centers and the resources in each data center are separated for internal users and for external users, wherein the program reservation information management table and the free resource quantity management table are each separated into for internal users and for external users, wherein the resource use status management table further includes information about whether said each resource is for internal users or for external users, wherein the particular resources are selected from among resources that are for external users listed in the resource use status management table such that the particular resources are resources belonging to a given one of the data centers only if possible.