Patent ID: 8606924

Claim:
A method of managing an allocation of computing resources allocated from a plurality of groups of computing resources, the method comprising: determining an expected requirement of computing resources over a time period for usage from a first group of computing resources; obtaining a metric indicating an available capacity of the first group of computing resources over the time period; determining an expected shortfall time and an expected shortfall in the available capacity of the first group of computing resources at the expected shortfall time; calculating a cost associated with combining the first group of computing resources with the second group of computing resources; analyzing the calculated cost to determine a requirement for combining the first group of computing resources with the second group of computing resources; combining the first group of computing resources with the second group of computing resources if the analysis of the calculated cost indicates a requirement to combine the first group of computing resources with the second group of computing resources prior to the expected shortfall time and responsive to determining the expected shortfall in the available capacity of the first group of computing resources; and not combining the first group of computing resources with the second group of computing resources if the analysis of the calculated cost indicates no requirement to combine the first group of computing resources with the second group of computing resources prior to the expected shortfall.