Patent ID: 8539074

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for prioritizing data packets associated with applications running in a networked computing environment, comprising: accessing, in a computer data structure, a Service Level Agreement (SLA) associated with a particular application and at least one other SLA associated with at least one other application, the particular application and the at least one other application running in the networked computing environment; determining a proposed modification to a priority of a set of data packets associated with the particular application based on a comparison of a current performance of the set of data packets against a specified performance of the set of data packets as set forth in the SLA, the proposed modification comprising assigning a higher priority to the set of data packets as compared to that of a set of other data packets associated with the at least one other application; evaluating an effect of the proposed modification on a capability of the particular application to meet a set of terms of the SLA, and of the at least one other application to meet a set of terms of the at least one other SLA, the evaluating comprising determining current speeds at which the set of data packets and the set of other data packets traverse elements of the networked computing environment; and determining whether to implement the proposed modification based on the evaluating.