Systems and methods to allocate application tasks to a pool of processing machines

A medium storing instructions adapted to be executed by a processor to perform a method, said method comprising:

• receiving from a requestor a scope request including an indication of a number of compute units to be reserved for the scope;
• receiving an application request associated with the scope;
• determining a number of compute units associated with the application request;
• allocating a subset of available processing machines from a pool of processing machines to the application request, wherein a number of compute units associated with the subset is greater than the number of compute units associated with the application request, and wherein other processing machines from the pool are allocated to other application requests associated with other scopes;
• dividing the application request into a plurality of tasks;
• associating a deadline with each task;
• assigning each task to a processing machine in the subset;
• if a processing machine does not complete the task before the deadline, re-assigning the task to another processing machine in the subset;
• and
• allocating a cost to the requestor, wherein the allocated cost is based at least in part on (i) a cost associated with the entire pool of processing machines and (ii) the number of compute units reserved for the scope.

A scheduling/distribution manager, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a storage device in communication with said processor and storing instructions adapted to be executed by said processor to:
• receive from a requestor a scope request including an indication of a number of compute units to be reserved for a scope,
• receive an application request associated with the scope,
• determine a number of compute units associated with the application request,
• allocate a subset of available processing machines from a pool of processing machines to the application request, wherein a number of compute units associated with the subset is greater than the number of compute units associated with the application request, and wherein other processing machines from the pool are allocated to other application requests associated with other scopes,
• divide the application request into a plurality of tasks,
• associate a deadline with each task,
• assign each task to a processing machine in the subset,
• if a processing machine does not complete the task before the deadline, re-assign the task to another processing machine in the subset, and
• allocate a cost to the requestor, wherein the allocated cost is based at least in part on (i) a cost associated with the entire pool of processing machines and (ii) the number of compute units reserved for the scope.

A system, comprising:

• a processing machine pool;
• and
• a scheduling/distribution manager, comprising:
• a processor;
• and
• a storage device in communication with said processor and storing instructions adapted to be executed by said processor to:
• receive from a requestor a scope request including an indication of a number of compute units to be reserved for a scope,
• receive an application request associated with the scope,
• determine a number of compute units associated with the application request,
• allocate a subset of available processing machines from a pool of processing machines to the application request, wherein a number of compute units associated with the subset is greater than the number of compute units associated with the application request, and wherein other processing machines from the pool are allocated to other application requests associated with other scopes,
• divide the application request into a plurality of tasks,
• associate a deadline with each task,
• assign each task to a processing machine in the subset,
• if a processing machine does not complete the task before the deadline, re-assign the task to another processing machine in the subset, and
• allocate a cost to the requester, wherein the allocated cost is based at least in part on (i) a cost associated with the entire pool of processing machines and (ii) the number of compute units reserved for the scope.