Patent ID: 8806014

Claim:
A method implemented in a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium and processed by one or more processors configured to perform the method, comprising: acquiring cloud attribute data for a target cloud processing environment and acquiring service attribute data for a service, wherein the cloud attribute data includes data relevant to the target cloud processing environment for: a cloud reputation, a cloud geography, a cloud state, a cloud service-level agreement, and cloud expense data, and wherein the service attribute data includes data relevant to the service for: service configuration data, a service service-level agreement, a service reputation, and service expense data, and acquiring policies that control deployment of the service to the target cloud processing environment from the deployment specification; evaluating a deployment specification for deploying the service to the target cloud processing environment; developing a service placement plan for scheduling the deployment of the service to the target cloud processing environment based on the cloud attribute data, the service attribute data, and the deployment specification, and balancing the service placement plan by weighing values defined in the cloud attribute data, the service attribute data, and the deployment specification, and changing a selection associated with the target cloud processing environment based on weighing the values, and altering a mix of workloads or software products that define the service based on weighing the values; and deploying the service to the target cloud processing environment in accordance with the service placement plan.