Patent ID: 8335703

Claim:
A method of managing virtual desktops for multiple users, comprising: defining a set of computing classes, each computing class associated with a per user cost; accumulating a usage history corresponding to each user in a set of users, the usage history indicative of computing demands of each user; analyzing the computing demands to define a user profile for each user, the computing demands indicative of a provisioning cost of the user; provisioning each user in a particular computing class based on the user profile, the per user cost and the provisioning cost for the user, wherein provisioning includes instantiating a desktop computing environment using a portion of the available computing resources on a server, including memory and central processor resources of the server, thereby provisioning a plurality of desktop environments on the server for use by the set of users, and enabling the user to remotely use the desktop computing environment, such that applications and central processor computations of a personal computer desktop environment are executed within the desktop computing environment on the server, and input from the user and output to the user is provided over a computer network from the server to a remote computer used by the user; and periodically reanalyzing the computing demands of a user in the set of users to selectively reprovision the user.