Patent ID: 8321704

Claim:
A method for managing electric power consumption by elements of a distributed computing system, said elements including computer devices forming an environment for processing one or more executable applications, said method comprising: determining, while in-progress applications are being run in said computing system, one or more system metrics that relate to electric power usage as currently consumed by currently configured elements of said distributed computing system; receiving current data from resources local to and external to the distributed computing system, said data including external factors affecting electric power consumption of said currently configured elements; determining a system value in response to said one or more system metrics based on said current data from said local and external resources, said value determined according to one or more value criteria, and said value translatable to a financial value; and; while said in-progress applications are being run in said distributed computing system, evaluating one or more potential changes operative to alter electric power consumption in the distributed computing system responsive to said current data aggregated from said local and external resources and determining associated alternate system values based on said changes, said alternate system value reflecting a consequence translatable to decreased cost resulting from a potential change; and, re-configuring elements of said distributed computing system according to said one or more potential changes operative to alter electric power consumption dynamically while said distributed computing system is operating, in accordance with a determined alternate system value.