Patent ID: 8914469

Claim:
A method for providing automated contract negotiations within a Cloud computing environment, comprising: establishing a master agreement between a first Cloud partner and a second Cloud partner before a shortfall exists, the master agreement specifying at least a minimum service requirement and a maximum price payable at which available resources will be provided; wherein each of the first Cloud partner and the second Cloud partner comprises: a processor, and a system memory in communication with the processor; wherein the first Cloud partner is associated with: a scheduler that performs a process comprising: assessing a resource requirement for performing a task, issued by a client, for the first Cloud partner, determing whether the shortfall exists between available resources of the first Cloud partner and the resource requirement, and accessing a master agreement database to identify the master agreement with the second Cloud partner to address the shortfall; a contract agent that performs a process comprising; generating, with a contract agent associated with the second Cloud partner, a digitally signed contract between the first Cloud partner and the second Cloud partner; and the master agreement database comprising master agreements; establishing a service level agreement between the first Cloud partner and the client; assessing the resource requirement for performing the task, issued by the client, for the first Cloud partner within the Cloud computing environment; determining whether the shortfall exists between available resources of the first Cloud partner and the resource requirement; searching, based on the resource requirement and an identity of the first Cloud provider, a master agreement for a Cloud partner to provide resources to address the shortfall; identifying, from the master agreement, the second Cloud partner to address the shortfall; submitting the task via transmissions that are transparent to the client, to the second Cloud partner; and reverting to the first Cloud partner in response to the shortfall no longer existing.