Patent ID: 8548640

Claim:
A system comprising: a controller, the controller communicatively coupled to one or more computer systems at each of a plurality of different premises, each of the one or more computer systems at each premise configured to execute assigned workloads to generate heat for satisfying a heat demand at said premise, each of the one more other computer systems at each premise having a heat transfer mechanism that transfers heat from said computer system to a building heat system on said premise, each workload including at least a portion of a distributed application, the controller configured to: receive an indication of a heat demand at each premise from among said plurality of different premises, said heat demand being a heat request for a building heating system on said premise, said heat demand not based on cooling costs at said premise; and load balance a plurality of workloads across said plurality of different premises considering said indicated heat demand at said each premise as a load balancing criteria, including: for each of the plurality of premises, adjust a number of workloads assigned to said one or more computer systems at said premise based on said indicated heat demand at said premise, said number of workloads adjusted to cause components of said one or more computer systems to generate heat to satisfy said indicated heat demand at said premise and heat said premise.