Assignment of resources in virtual machine pools

A method for providing resources in a cloud computing environment, comprising:

• receiving standby reservations from users, each standby reservation associated with a virtual machine pool corresponding to a user, each standby reservation defining a number of virtual machines and a condition for allocating and assigning the number of virtual machines to the virtual machine pool, wherein the condition includes at least the allocating of the virtual machines being based on a proximity of the virtual machines to one or more security requirements of one or more tasks from a first user:
• tracking the number of virtual machines defined by each of the standby reservations using one or more counts, wherein the one or more counts are used to ensure that a sufficient number of idle or preemptible virtual machines are available to achieve the number of virtual machines for each of the standby reservations;
• increasing the one or more counts by an amount based on receiving a request from the first user for an increase in the number of virtual machines defined by a first of the standby reservations;
• based on determining the condition defined by the first of the standby reservations is satisfied, performing the allocating and assigning of the increased number of virtual machines to the virtual machine pool corresponding to the first user, the allocating and assigning being from the idle or preemptible virtual machines;
• and
• performing the one or more tasks for the virtual machine pool corresponding to the first user using at least one of the allocated and assigned virtual machines.