Methods and apparatus for coordinating and selecting protocols for resources acquisition from multiple resource managers

Apparatus for use by a service provider for allocating one or more resources from multiple resources associated with multiple resource managers, comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• at least one processor coupled to the memory and operative to:
• (i) obtain at least one service agreement offer from a service client;
• and (ii) automatically determine a resource allocation based on the obtained service agreement offer, wherein the automated operation of determining the resource allocation comprises coordinating selection of a resource acquisition protocol from among multiple resource acquisition protocols for use in communicating with the multiple resource managers to acquire one or more resources associated therewith, and evaluating a performance associated with one or more of the multiple resource acquisition protocols.

An article of manufacture for use by a service provider for allocating one or more resources from multiple resources associated with multiple resource managers, comprising a machine readable medium containing one or more programs which when executed implement the steps of:

• obtaining at least one service agreement offer from a service client;
• and
• automatically determining a resource allocation based on the obtained service agreement offer, wherein the automated step of determining the resource allocation comprises:
• (i) coordinating selection of a resource acquisition protocol from among multiple resource acquisition protocols for use in communicating with the multiple resource managers to acquire one or more resources associated therewith;
• and (ii) evaluating a performance associated with one or more of the multiple resource acquisition protocols.

A method for use by a service provider for allocating one or more resources from multiple resources associated with multiple resource managers, comprising the steps of:

• obtaining at least one service agreement offer from a service client;
• identifying, based on the service agreement offer, a set of resource managers offering a given resource type;
• selecting one or more resource allocation protocols based on respective performances of the one or more resource allocation protocols for the given resource type;
• and
• coordinating execution of the one or more resource allocation protocols to yield an optimal allocation.