Resource distribution engine(s) for allocating and securing reclaimable resources within a cloud environment

A computing apparatus comprising:

• a computer-readable storage medium;
• processor-executable instructions stored on the computer-readable storage medium;
• and
• one or more processors coupled to the computer-readable storage medium and configured to execute the processor-executable instructions, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, direct the computing apparatus, to at least:
• determine a plurality of markets containing reclaimable resources;
• perform, by a resource distribution engine of an instance management service, a resource distribution process to determine a resource distribution of the reclaimable resources within the plurality of markets, wherein the resource distribution comprises a distribution across a plurality of different instance types of the reclaimable resources, wherein performing the resource distribution process comprises:
• determining, by the resource distribution engine, a plurality of virtual node groups (VNGs), each VNG comprising a candidate grouping of the reclaimable resources within the plurality of markets;
• determining, by the resource distribution engine, a computing resource vector for each reclaimable resource included in each virtual node group (VNG) within each of the plurality of markets;
• computing, by the resource distribution engine, for each VNG, an entropy of the instance type for the reclaimable resources included in that VNG based on the computing resource vectors of the reclaimable resources included in that VNG, wherein each entropy indicates a degree of randomness in a distribution of the reclaimable resources of that VNG across the plurality of markets;
• excluding, by the resource distribution engine, VNGs whose entropy is below a threshold;
• and
• selecting, by the resource distribution engine, a VNG from among the remaining VNGs;
• and
• secure the reclaimable resources included in the selected VNG as provisioned reclaimable resources.

A computer-readable storage medium comprising processor-executable instructions configured to cause one or more processors to:

• identify a request from a cluster orchestrator to acquire computing resources associated with deployment of an application;
• determine one or more markets containing reclaimable resources suitable for the computing resources;
• perform a resource distribution process to determine a resource distribution of the reclaimable resources within the one or more markets, wherein the resource distribution of the reclaimable resources comprises a distribution across a plurality of different instance types of the reclaimable resources, wherein performing the resource distribution process comprises:
• determining, by the resource distribution engine, a plurality of virtual node groups (VNGs), each VNG comprising a candidate grouping of the reclaimable resources within the plurality of markets;
• determining, by the resource distribution engine, a computing resource vector for each reclaimable resource included in each virtual node group (VNG);
• computing, by the resource distribution engine, for each VNG, an entropy of the instance type for the reclaimable resources included in that VNG based on the computing resource vectors of the reclaimable resources included in that VNG, wherein each entropy indicates a degree of randomness in a distribution of the reclaimable resources of that VNG across the plurality of markets;
• excluding, by the resource distribution engine, VNGs whose entropy is below a threshold;
• and
• selecting, by the resource distribution engine, a VNG from among the remaining VNGs;
• secure, by the instance management service, the reclaimable resources included in the selected VNG as provisioned reclaimable resources;
• and
• transmit an indication of the provisioned reclaimable resources to the cluster orchestrator.