International Business Machines Corporation
CHARGING USERS FOR COMPUTER MEMORY USAGE

Abstract:

An information processing system, computer readable storage medium, and a method for managing computer memory. The method includes deploying at least one memory allocator on a computing system which includes a multi-user computing system or a cloud computing system; dynamically allocating, by the at least one memory allocator, an amount of dynamically allocated memory for use by an executing program at runtime; and determining a cost to charge a user based on the amount of memory that has been allocated. Multiple billing methods can be used including: restricting the amount of dynamically allocated memory available to the user based on how much the user is paying; charging the user a fee which grows with an amount of dynamically allocated memory consumed; charging the user higher fees during higher periods of dynamically allocated memory usage; and charging the user a low fee for maintaining dynamically allocated memory usage below a threshold.