Patent ID: 7941427

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for managing access to computer resources, the method comprising: (a) defining a respective financial valuation of each of a plurality of work items to be processed by one or more data processing systems; (b) comparing the respective financial valuation of each respective said work item to a respective cost of accessing additional computer resources necessary to process the work item in a current time period, said additional computer resources being external to said one or more data processing systems; (c) with respect to each said work item for which the respective financial valuation of the work item exceeds the respective cost of accessing additional computer resources necessary to process the work item in the current time period, dynamically accessing additional computer resources necessary to process the work item in the current time period; (d) with respect to each said work item for which the respective financial valuation of the work item does not exceed the respective cost of accessing additional computer resources necessary to process the work item in the current time period, deferring processing of the work item to a subsequent time period; and (e) repeating said (b) through (d) in one or more subsequent time periods with respect to each said work item deferred by said (d) until each said work item has been processed.