Managing security clusters in cloud computing environments using autonomous security risk negotiation agents

A computer program product for operating a virtual computing system including a plurality of virtual machines that are logically arranged in a cluster that is managed by a virtualization environment manager, one or more of the virtual machines in the cluster comprising a similarity arbitrator, the computer program product comprising:

• a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied in the medium, the computer readable program code comprising:
• computer readable program code configured to receive, at the similarity arbitrator, data about a security policy of a candidate virtual machine that is proposed to be included in the cluster or excluded from the cluster,
• computer readable program code configured to perform a comparison of the security policy of the candidate virtual machine to security policies of a plurality of virtual machines in the cluster, and
• computer readable program code configured to generate a recommendation that the virtualization environment manager include the candidate virtual machine in the cluster or exclude the candidate virtual machine from the cluster in response to the comparison of the security policy of the candidate virtual machine to the security policies of the plurality of virtual machines in the cluster.