US Patent 9858123 Moving resource consumers in computer systems

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for regulating access of consumers (e.g., applications, containers, or VMs) to resources and services (e.g., storage). In one embodiment, this regulation occurs through the movement of consumers between different providers of a resource or service. Moving consumers includes, for example, determining the cost of moving the consumer from a first provider to a second provider. According to various embodiments, the cost of moving the consumer is compared to savings associated with moving the consumer from the first provider to the second provider.