Patent ID: 7958511

Claim:
A machine implemented method, comprising: receiving a request to execute a new job; processing the request to determine a set of job characteristics for the new job; accessing a database containing execution information for a plurality of previously executed jobs, wherein the execution information associated with a previously executed job comprises a set of job characteristics for that previously executed job, and a set of resource usage information indicating what computing resources were actually used to execute that previously executed job; obtaining, from the database, the execution information associated with a particular previously executed job having similar or identical job characteristics as the job characteristics of the new job; determining, based at least partially upon the execution information associated with the particular previously executed job, what computing resources were actually used to execute the particular previously executed job; and deriving, based at least partially upon the computing resources that were actually used to execute the particular previously executed job, an estimate of what computing resources will be needed to execute the new job, wherein the job characteristics are categorized into scalable and non-scalable characteristics, and wherein the job characteristics of the new job include an indication of a particular application to be executed, one or more execution parameters for the particular application, and an indication of one or more particular sets of data on which the particular application is to operate.