Patent ID: 7800772

Claim:
A data processing apparatus that is at least one of a plurality of data processing apparatuses connected to a network, the at least one data processing apparatus having a plurality of operating statuses for converting input data to processed data and comprising: a memory that stores data representing a relation between data processing capacity and power consumption for each operating status of the plurality of data processing apparatuses, wherein the relation comprises the data processing capacity represented as a normalized standard of a processing speed for processing a specified amount of input data, and the power consumption is the power consumption corresponding to the normalized data processing capacity; a selecting unit that selects a data processing apparatus having an operating status with which power consumption required for processing a processing request produced by the at least one data processing apparatus is minimized, according to an amount of the processing request, the selection being made based on the relation between the data processing capacity and the power consumption for each operating status, and the selected data processing apparatus being selected out of the plurality of data processing apparatuses including the at least one data processing apparatus; and a transmission unit that transmits the processing request to the selected data processing apparatus according to the selection.