Patent ID: 7707080

Claim:
A method for metering use of network-accessible computer resources by multiple users of said computer resources during a same time period, said method comprising: recording, as process accounting information in a memory of a computer system, usage of said computer resources during said time period, said computer resources comprising servers distributed across an infrastructure of a service provider, wherein said usage comprises at least central processing unit (CPU) time, memory usage and input/output (I/O) operations; recording, in said memory, service request information for service requests made by said users to said service provider; correlating, by a processor of said computer system, the recorded process accounting information and the recorded service request information in order to determine resource usage information for each of said service requests for each of said users during said time period, said correlating comprising: identifying overlapping usage of any of said computer resources, said overlapping usage comprising usage, during said time period, of a same computer resource to perform processes for at least two different service requests of at least two different users; and allocating any overlapping usage by one of evenly splitting said overlapping usage between said at least two different service requests and splitting said overlapping usage in a weighted manner between said at least two different service requests based upon respective durations of said at least two different service requests; and charging said users for said service requests based on said allocating of said overlapping usage.