Cost minimization of services provided by multiple service providers

A method for minimizing costs associated with services provided by a plurality of service providers (SPs) wherein each SP charges for utilization of its service based on a tiered pricing structure comprising one or more tiers and wherein each tier correlates to an amount of service provided by the SP and a cost, the method comprising:

• generating a target tier for each SP based on a utilization of the SP's service wherein the target tier represents a tier contained in the SP's tiered pricing structure;
• collecting measurement data that represents the utilization of the SPs' services, wherein the data is collected over a billing period and wherein the billing period comprises one or more rollup periods;
• generating one or more rollup values from measurement data collected during a rollup period;
• generating a momentary target utilization rate (MTUR) for each SP based on the generated target tier for the SP and utilization of the SP's service wherein the MTUR represents a cumulative utilization of a SP's service at a particular instance of time;
• distributing utilization of the SPs' services among the SPs based on the MTUR and tiered pricing structure of each SP in a manner that minimizes the cost of the services provided by the SPs;
• and
• for the first N/P+1 rollup periods in the billing period, distributing demand among the SPs in a manner that minimizes the cost of the services provided by the SPs as indicated by the SPs' tiered pricing structures and the measurement data, wherein N is a number of discarded rollup values in the billing period and P is a number of rollup values generated per rollup period.