Patent ID: 8612599

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for cloud services monitoring (CSM), comprising: identifying, with a processor, a service level agreement (SLA) rule to execute to meet a SLA requirement for a user of cloud resources provided by a cloud computing environment, the SLA rule being accessed by the processor using a network, where the SLA rule is further configured to comprise: a time-to-request, wherein the time-to-request is an amount of time in advance of a request for a selected cloud resource to request the selected cloud resource among the cloud resources, and a time-to-start for a computing instance, wherein the time-to-start is an amount of time in advance of a request for the computing instance to start the computing instance that executes in the cloud computing environment; observing, using the processor connected to the network, the cloud computing environment to collect state information; identifying a mathematical model that models the behavior of the observed cloud computing environment by using the processor to apply the model to the collected state information; determining, using the processor to apply the model to the collected state information, when the state information indicates that the cloud computing environment is at risk of not meeting the SLA requirement, and based on a determination of a risk of not meeting the SLA requirement, adjusting the SLA rule to improve the probability that the cloud computing environment will meet the SLA requirement, wherein adjusting the SLA rule includes adjusting the time-to-request, the time-to-start or both.