Patent ID: 8635349

Claim:
A method for managing computing resources, comprising: receiving, by a first electronic broker agent, from a first resource manager, a first request to broker access to at least one computing resource managed by the first resource manager, wherein the first request comprises a sell offer to sell access to the at least one computing resource, wherein the sell offer comprises metadata indicating a preferred transaction partner operating at least one electronic transaction interface of a plurality of electronic transaction interfaces; receiving, by a second electronic broker agent, from a second resource manager, a second request to broker access to the at least one computing resource, wherein the second request comprises a purchase offer to purchase access to the at least one computing resource for use by a resource pool managed by the second resource manager; distributing, by the first electronic broker agent, the sell offer to the at least one electronic transaction interface according to the metadata in the sell offer, wherein the at least one electronic transaction interface is at least one selected from a group consisting of an electronic auction agent, an electronic leasing agent, and an electronic exchange agent, wherein the electronic auction agent provides services for auctioning access to the at least one computing resource, the electronic leasing agent provides services for leasing access to the at least one computing resource, and the electronic exchange agent is configured to arrange access to the at least one computing resource in exchange for access to a second computing resource; receiving, by the second electronic broker agent via an electronic transaction interface of the plurality of electronic transaction interfaces, the sell offer; purchasing, by the second electronic broker agent via the electronic transaction interface, access to the at least one computing resource from the first resource manager; and providing, by the first electronic broker agent, access to the at least one computing resource to the second resource manager for use by the resource pool.