Patent ID: 7849156

Claim:
A method, comprising: for individual ones of positions in a virtualized execution of an application, determining, by a data processor, components that are required at each position, where a position is a point at which the virtualized execution of the application requires at least one new component, and where a component is a decomposition of the application; the data processor establishing a pseudo-distance between the positions in the virtualized execution of the application by hierarchical clustering of requests for components into a binary tree, where distances between leaves of the binary tree approximate pseudo-distances; and the data processor, using at least a portion of the binary tree, identifying components that are candidates for prefetching as those components required at one or more positions that are proximate to a current position; where the pseudo-distance is a measure of a likelihood of moving from one position in the virtualized execution of the application to another position in the virtualized execution of the application within some period of time.