Patent ID: 7873732

Claim:
A method of maintaining service reliability in a data center, said method comprising: responsive to receiving a set of metrics associated with resources managed within a data center, analyzing the set of metrics using a data center model comprising model resources corresponding to resources in the data center and comparing the set of metrics against service level objectives; determining, using the data center model, a probability of breach, wherein the probability of breach represents a probability of failure of at least one resource in the data center, wherein the probability of breach is determined using a probability of breach surface map; responsive to determining that the probability of breach exceeds a predetermined value, synchronizing resources in the data center with model resources in the data center model to ensure the model resources in the data center model currently reflect the resources in the data center; making an additional resource available to the data center said additional resource is adapted to perform a task performed by the at least one resource, wherein the additional resource is drawn from a spare resource pool independent of the data center, and wherein a spare resource pool is provided by a vendor; responsive to making the additional resource available to the data center, realizing a change in the data center model using a data center automation system; and resynchronizing resources in the data center with model resources in the data center model to ensure the model resources in the data center model currently reflect the resources in the data center, wherein the probability of breach surface map is determined as a function of time and a number of resources in the data center.