Patent ID: 8320256

Claim:
A method for managing utilization of at least one resource in a computer system, comprising: at a utilization monitor, monitoring usage of capacity of the computer resource, including monitoring usage of base capacity of the computer resource and marginal capacity of the computer resource which accommodates usage exceeding the base capacity for a predetermined time period; reporting the usage of capacity of the computer resource to an LPAR hypervisor; determining whether usage of the computer resource over the predetermined time period exceeds a predetermined threshold; and if the usage of the computer resource temporally exceeds the predetermined threshold automatically ceasing usage of at least a portion of the marginal capacity; if usage of the computer resource exceeds the predetermined threshold for a duration, allocating marginal capacity and adjusting a charge for the usage of the computer resources by an amount based on the usage of the computer resources exceeding the threshold; wherein the predetermined threshold is the base capacity, and the adjusting is based on the usage of marginal capacity exceeding the base capacity; wherein usage of the base capacity is charged at a base rate (Base Million Instructions Per Second (MIPS)), and usage of the marginal capacity is charged at a discounted rate (Marginal MIPS); wherein the charge for the usage of the computer resources is defined as (Price/MIPS)(Base MIPs+(1/n)*(Marginal MIPs)); where n is an integer.