Patent ID: 7908606

Claim:
A method, comprising: (a) collecting, by a first computer system, a peak value indicating a peak level of computer resource utilization in the computer system; (b) selecting a bucket from a first array of buckets corresponding to the collected peak value, wherein each bucket from the array contains a count value providing a recorded history of how many times a particular level of computer resource utilization was observed; (c) modifying the count value maintained in the selected bucket corresponding to the collected peak value; (d) repeating, iteratively, the operational acts described in paragraphs (a), (b), and (c) for a first period of time; and (e) generating a report based on the count values contained in the first array of buckets indicative of the levels of computer resource utilization realized during at least the first period of time and a threshold value such that the report indicates the number of times a particular computer resource utilization level was greater than the threshold value; wherein the count values in the first array of buckets and the number of times a particular computer resource utilization level was greater than the threshold value are used in generating a bill associated with the amount of computer resources utilized.