Patent ID: 8255407

Claim:
A method of matching resource capabilities of data centers to resource needs of data centers, comprising: storing at a computing arrangement capability data sets received from a plurality of data centers, wherein each capability data set includes a subset that has mandatory information and a subset that has optional information, wherein the mandatory information identifies a data center and the optional information indicates resources available at the identified data center, and at least one of the capability data sets specifies respective server classes of a plurality of available servers; storing at the computing arrangement query descriptors received from one or more of the plurality of data centers, wherein each query descriptor specifies information to be matched to at least one of the mandatory information and the optional information of the plurality of capability data sets, and at least one of the query descriptors specifies a server class; storing each query descriptor at the computing arrangement for up to a selected maximum period of time that defines a query-lease period; applying each query descriptor stored at the computing arrangement to each newly received capability data set; to each data center identified in a query descriptor satisfied by the newly received capability descriptor, providing the newly received capability data set; identifying at each data center identified in a query descriptor satisfied by the newly received capability descriptor the data center that better matches the resource needs of the data center identified in a query descriptor satisfied by the newly received capability descriptor; applying each newly received query descriptor to each capability data set stored at the computing arrangement, and providing each capability data set that matches the newly received query descriptor to the data center identified in the newly received query descriptor; and identifying at the data center identified in the newly received query descriptor the data center that better matches the resource needs of the data center identified in the newly received query descriptor, wherein a data center that has provided a query descriptor works with a data center having matching resources until the data center that better matches the resource needs is found.