Patent ID: 8396757

Claim:
A computer system for estimating a future cost of a grid job, said system comprising: a processor, a computer readable memory and a computer readable storage media; first program instructions to communicatively connect a client system to a network, wherein said client system is enabled to submit a particular grid job to a grid provider that facilitates a grid environment for processing said particular grid job; second program instructions to calculate a ratio of an application based metric to a grid provider metric for said grid provider processing said particular grid job by: distributing a job microcosm of said particular grid job from said client system to said grid provider via a network for processing in said grid environment; and responsive to receiving a result of said job microcosm and a charge for processing said job microcosm based on a grid provider metric from said grid provider, calculating at said client system said ratio of said application based metric to said grid provider metric and identifying a cost per grid provider metric from said charge for processing said job microcosm; third program instructions to create a table with an entry comparing said application based metric to said cost per grid provider metric for said grid provider with said ratio; fourth program instructions to store said table with said entry for said particular grid job; fifth program instructions, responsive to said client system detecting a next grid job classified by at least one application metric, to access said entry comprising said application based metric to said cost per grid provider metric for said grid provider with said ratio; sixth program instructions to calculate an estimated cost for said grid provider to process a next grid job based on a particular number of application based metric operations required for said next grid job translated by said ratio into said grid provider metric and multiplied by said cost per grid provider metric; and wherein the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth program instructions are stored on the computer readable storage media for execution by the processor via the computer readable memory.