Patent ID: 8352398

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising steps of: collecting statistics over a period of time regarding amounts of time taken for operations of a particular type to be completed by each of a plurality of processes; based on said statistics, determining an average amount of time for the particular type of operation to complete; determining an amount of time that a particular process has been waiting for an operation of the particular type to complete; determining whether the amount of time that the particular process has been waiting for the operation of the particular type to complete exceeds the average amount of time determined for operations of the particular type to complete plus a specified non-zero delta amount of time; and terminating the particular process in response to determining that the amount of time that the particular process has been waiting for the operation of the particular type to complete exceeds the average amount of time determined for operations of the particular type to complete plus a specified non-zero delta amount of time; wherein the steps are performed by one or more computing devices.