System and method for customer provisioning in a utility computing platform

A computer-implemented system for provisioning virtual servers in a virtual environment having a virtualization control system coupled to a physical server, disk drive, and networking resources, where the virtualization control system is configured to partition physical resources into virtual resources including virtual processor, memory, and storage resources, the system comprising:

• a hardware data processor;
• a computer-readable memory encoded with instructions for commanding the data processor to:
• receive an identification of an operating system, a server name, a number of processors, a memory amount, and a disk storage amount;
• receive an identification of a network on which a virtual server is to reside;
• provision the virtual server by provisioning a number of processors, an amount of memory, and an amount of storage resources based on the identified number of processors, the identified memory amount, and the identified disk storage amount;
• deploy the provisioned virtual server;
• monitor resource usage of a virtual environment comprising the virtual server;
• detect resource usage of virtual servers in the virtual environment exceeding processing resources, memory amount, or disk storage amount allocated to the virtual environment;
• determine whether burst resource usage mode is enabled for the virtual environment;
• receive a request to enable burst usage mode for the virtual environment;
• provide a display identifying cost data regarding costs that will be incurred should burst usage mode be activated;
• receive a confirmation of the request to enable burst usage mode;
• and
• enable burst usage mode for the virtual environment;
• and
• provision additional resources for the virtual servers in the virtual environment based on the burst resource usage mode being enabled for the virtual environment.