Patent ID: 8756302

Claim:
A method of determining computing resource usage in a utility computing environment having a plurality of network infrastructure nodes, each network infrastructure node including a plurality of computing resource types measured according to respective resource units, the method comprising: for each of the plurality of network infrastructure nodes: determining, for each type of computing resource, a cost per predetermined time unit to deploy and operate the type of computing resource, wherein the predetermined time unit is determined based on a lifespan of the type of computing resource; and applying a cost conversion factor to each cost per predetermined time unit to determine a number of resource units per Workload Allocation Cube (WAC) unit; for each type of computing resource, generating an average number of resource units per WAC unit by averaging the number of resource units over the plurality of network infrastructure nodes; for an application executing on at least one of the network infrastructure nodes, periodically monitoring usage of each type of computing resource to generate a number of resource units used in a predetermined time period; for each type of computing resource, determining a number of WAC units consumed in the predetermined time period by converting the number of resource units used in the predetermined time period according to the average number of resource units per WAC unit for the respective type of computing resource; and generating a total resource consumption by adding the number of WAC units consumed by the application in the predetermined time period for each type of computing resource.