Patent ID: 8898291

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for dynamically expanding computing resources in a networked computing environment, comprising: defining the networked computing environment as a cloud computing environment comprising a set of functional abstraction layers through which a plurality of cloud computing nodes offer a set of computing resources to a set of client computing devices; determining an available capacity of the set of computing resources in the networked computing environment; forecasting a future capacity needed for processing a set of workloads in the networked computing environment, the forecasting being based upon the following: a scheduled consumption of the set of computing resources, the scheduled consumption being determined based on at least one resource consumption schedule stored in a computer data structure, and a potential capacity of the set of computing resources, the potential capacity being determined based upon a set of application events associated with the set of workloads, the application events being associated with known probabilities of future capacity shortages; determining whether the future capacity exceeds the available capacity; and expanding, responsive to the future capacity exceeding the available capacity, the set of computing resources until the available capacity at least meets the future capacity.