Computer technology requirements typically vary, especially over extended periods of time. Hard drive capacities, bus speeds, and processor speeds can double every few years. A user can require 10 gigabytes (GB) of storage capacity at the start of a business, which soon increases to a requirement of 1000 GB of storage when the business becomes successful. These varying demands have led in part to the use of on-demand computing.
On-demand or utility computing is a computing system or model that allocates computing resources or assets to an organization and its individual users on an as-needed basis to allow the organization to efficiently meet dynamic computing demands. For example, if a group of users is working with applications that demand a large amount of bandwidth, the on-demand computing system can allocate additional bandwidth specifically to this group, such as from a pool of resources that are not currently utilizing the bandwidth.
On-demand computing can provide for the packaging of the computing resources, such as computation and storage, as a metered service similar to a physical public utility. On-demand computing has the advantage of low initial cost to acquire hardware. Customers requiring very large computations or having a sudden peak in demand can also avoid the delays that would result from physically acquiring, assembling and/or implementing a large number of computer resources. For example, Internet hosting services have the capability to quickly arrange for the leasing of individual servers, such as to provision a bank of web servers to accommodate a sudden surge in traffic to a web site.
When resources are provisioned for use by an end-user, they are provided to the end-user for a length of time dictated by a lease duration. Typically, the lease duration requested is longer than the resource is actually required. This drives up inefficiencies in the use of the asset.
A need exists for efficient use of resources in an on-demand computing system. A need further exists for managing the lease duration associated with the resources based at least in part on metrics or parameters associated with the resources. A need yet further exists for managing the lease duration so that under-utilized assets are returned from lease faster and/or highly-utilized assets are provided with a longer lease.