WO2013025591A2 - Brokerage method and system for computational resources - Google Patents

Abstract

A system for allocating a plurality of sellers and their computer devices. Each of the seller computer devices having an available computational resource capacity for delivering one of a plurality of computational services to the buyer computer devices. The seller computer devices and said buyer computer devices being arranged in a computer network to arrange a computation resource allocation market. The brokerage system coupling a suggested one of the plurality of seller computer devices to a requesting one of the plurality of buyer computer devices requesting a one of the plurality of computational services. The requesting one of the plurality of the buyer computer devices making a request for one of the plurality of services to the suggested one of the plurality of seller computer devices. The suggested one of the plurality of seller computer devices operating to accept the request for said one of the plurality of services when the seller computer devices has sufficient resources.

Description

IN THE UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE

Patent Application For:

BROKERAGE METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR COMPUTATIONAL

RESOURCES

Inventors: Hakim A. Karim

Mark Edward Ross

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection, 'The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by any one of the patent disclosure, as it appears in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 61/523,032 filed August 12, 2011, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to the allocation of resources within a computer network architecture and, more particularly, to the use of a broker mechanism which responds to a client's request for computational services.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Companies and individuals have an increasing need for computational and associated (e.g. storage and bandwidth) resources that are not necessarily feasible to satisfy without, for example, cost-prohibitive capital outlay. Meanwhile, practically all companies and individuals have excess capacity that could be used to satisfy much of this demand, and whose capital expenditure could be offset, if the appropriate technical and legal safeguards were in place and the commercial agreement were sufficient to cover any marginal costs, management overheads and perceived risks. A handful of firms have attempted to solve this problem with solutions which, though of merit, do not provide a satisfactory technical, legal and commercial framework that would satisfy an institutional buyer or seller of the resources.

The primary issue is that no institution would be prepared to buy from a seller without assurance that its computations were protected and would successfully execute in a timeframe commensurate with the compensation they were providing for it, and no seller would provide their resources without assurance that the buyer' s computations will not adversely impact their operations or resources for the compensation that will be received for it. A mechanism is therefore required to facilitate this exchange consisting of a technical, legal and commercial framework that mutually satisfies buyers, sellers and the broker of the transactions.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one aspect the present invention is a computer broker system and method which, on one hand monitors the dynamic status of a set of sellers each with preferably a set of computer devices having available computational resources and, on the other hand, responds to requests from various buyers of computer resources concerning which member of a broker community is capable of providing and available to service a requested computational service. In another aspect, the present invention relates to a legal framework and commercial model for selectively brokering computational resources within a computer network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The objects and features of the invention can be understood with reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment of the present invention taken together in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a computer system that can be used with certain embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a computer system in accordance with an illustrated embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a system flow diagram of a computer system in accordance with the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 2; and FIG. 4 is a flow chart depicting general operation of the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 2.

WRITTEN DESCRIPTION OF CERTAIN EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is now described more fully with reference to the

accompanying drawings, in which an illustrated embodiment of the present invention is shown. The present invention is not limited in any way to the illustrated

embodiment as the illustrated embodiment described below is merely exemplary of the invention, which can be embodied in various forms, as appreciated by one skilled in the art. Therefore, it is to be understood that any structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a basis for the claims and as a representative for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention. Furthermore, the terms and phrases used herein are not intended to be limiting but rather to provide an understandable description of the invention.

Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. Although any methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein can also be used in the practice or testing of the present invention, exemplary methods and materials are now described. All publications mentioned herein are incorporated herein by reference to disclose and describe the methods and/or materials in connection with which the publications are cited. It must be noted that as used herein and in the appended claims, the singular forms "a", "an," and "the" include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to "a stimulus" includes a plurality of such stimuli and reference to "the signal" includes reference to one or more signals and equivalents thereof known to those skilled in the art, and so forth.

The publications discussed herein are provided solely for their disclosure prior to the filing date of the present application. Nothing herein is to be construed as an admission that the present invention is not entitled to antedate such publication by virtue of prior invention. Further, the dates of publication provided may differ from the actual publication dates which may need to be independently confirmed.

It is to be appreciated the embodiments of this invention as discussed below are preferably a software algorithm, program or code residing on computer useable medium having control logic for enabling execution on a machine having a computer processor. The machine typically includes memory storage configured to provide output from execution of the computer algorithm or program. As used herein, the term "software" is meant to be synonymous with any code or program that can be in a processor of a host computer, regardless of whether the implementation is in hardware, firmware or as a software computer product available on a disc, a memory storage device, or for download from a remote machine. The embodiments described herein include such software to implement the equations, relationships and algorithms described above. One skilled in the art will appreciate further features and advantages of the invention based on the above-described embodiments. Accordingly, the invention is not to be limited by what has been particularly shown and described, except as indicated by the appended claims. All publications and references cited herein are expressly incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

Turning now descriptively to the drawings, in which similar reference characters denote similar elements throughout the several views, Fig. 1 depicts an exemplary general-purpose computing system in which illustrated embodiments of the present invention may be implemented.

A generalized computering embodiment in which the present invention can be realized is depicted in FIG. 1 illustrating a processing system 100 which generally comprises at least one processor 102, or processing unit or plurality of processors, memory 104, at least one input device 106 and at least one output device 108, coupled together via a bus or group of buses 110. In certain embodiments, input device 106 and output device 108 could be the same device. An interface 112 can also be provided for coupling the processing system 100 to one or more peripheral devices, for example interface 112 could be a PCI card or PC card. At least one storage device 114 which houses at least one database 116 can also be provided. The memory 104 can be any form of memory device, for example, volatile or non- volatile memory, solid state storage devices, magnetic devices, etc. The processor 102 could comprise more than one distinct processing device, for example to handle different functions within the processing system 100. Input device 106 receives input data 118 and can comprise, for example, a keyboard, a pointer device such as a pen-like device or a mouse, audio receiving device for voice controlled activation such as a microphone, data receiver or antenna such as a modem or wireless data adaptor, data acquisition card, etc. Input data 118 could come from different sources, for example keyboard instructions in conjunction with data received via a network. Output device 108 produces or generates output data 120 and can comprise, for example, a display device or monitor in which case output data 120 is visual, a printer in which case output data 120 is printed, a port for example a USB port, a peripheral component adaptor, a data transmitter or antenna such as a modem or wireless network adaptor, etc. Output data 120 could be distinct and derived from different output devices, for example a visual display on a monitor in conjunction with data transmitted to a network. A user could view data output, or an interpretation of the data output, on, for example, a monitor or using a printer. The storage device 114 can be any form of data or information storage means, for example, volatile or non- volatile memory, solid state storage devices, magnetic devices, etc.

In use, the processing system 100 is adapted to allow data or information to be stored in and/or retrieved from, via wired or wireless communication means, at least one database 116. The interface 112 may allow wired and/or wireless communication between the processing unit 102 and peripheral components that may serve a specialized purpose. Preferably, the processor 102 receives instructions as input data 118 via input device 106 and can display processed results or other output to a user by utilizing output device 108. More than one input device 106 and/or output device 108 can be provided. It should be appreciated that the processing system 100 may be any form of terminal, server, specialized hardware, or the like. It is to be appreciated that the processing system 100 may be a part of a networked communications system. Processing system 100 could connect to a network, for example the Internet or a WAN. Input data 118 and output data 120 could be communicated to other devices via the network. The transfer of information and/or data over the network can be achieved using wired communications means or wireless communications means. A server can facilitate the transfer of data between the network and one or more databases. A server and one or more databases provide an example of an information source. Thus, the processing computing system environment 100 illustrated in FIG. 1 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers. The remote computer may be a personal computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device, or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described above.

It is to be further appreciated that the logical connections depicted in FIG. 1 include a local area network (LAN) and a wide area network (WAN), but may also include other networks such as a personal area network (PAN). Such networking

environments are commonplace in offices, enterprise- wide computer networks, intranets, and the Internet. For instance, when used in a LAN networking

environment, the computing system environment 100 is connected to the LAN through a network interface or adapter. When used in a WAN networking

environment, the computing system environment typically includes a modem or other means for establishing communications over the WAN, such as the Internet. The modem, which may be internal or external, may be connected to a system bus via a user input interface, or via another appropriate mechanism. In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to the computing system

environment 100, or portions thereof, may be stored in a remote memory storage device. It is to be appreciated that the illustrated network connections of FIG. 1 are exemplary and other means of establishing a communications link between multiple computers may be used.

FIG. 1 is intended to provide a brief, general description of an illustrative and/or suitable exemplary environment in which embodiments of the below described present invention may be implemented. FIG. 1 is an example of a suitable environment and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the structure, scope of use, or functionality of an embodiment of the present invention. A particular environment should not be interpreted as having any dependency or requirement relating to any one or combination of components illustrated in an exemplary operating environment. For example, in certain instances, one or more elements of an environment may be deemed not necessary and omitted. In other instances, one or more other elements may be deemed necessary and added.

In the description that follows, certain embodiments may be described with reference to acts and symbolic representations of operations that are performed by one or more computing devices, such as the computing system environment 100 of FIG. 1. As such, it will be understood that such acts and operations, which are at times referred to as being computer-executed, include the manipulation by the processor of the computer of electrical signals representing data in a structured form. This

manipulation transforms the data or maintains them at locations in the memory system of the computer, which reconfigures or otherwise alters the operation of the computer in a manner understood by those skilled in the art. The data structures in which data is maintained are physical locations of the memory that have particular properties defined by the format of the data. However, while an embodiment is being described in the foregoing context, it is not meant to be limiting as those of skill in the art will appreciate that the acts and operations described hereinafter may also be implemented in hardware.

Embodiments may be implemented with numerous other general-purpose or special- purpose computing devices and computing system environments or configurations. Examples of well-known computing systems, environments, and configurations that may be suitable for use with an embodiment include, but are not limited to, personal computers, handheld or laptop devices, personal digital assistants, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network, minicomputers, server computers, game server computers, web server computers, mainframe computers, and distributed computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices.

Embodiments may be described in a general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc., that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. An embodiment may also be practiced in a distributed computing environment where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote computer storage media including memory storage devices.

With the exemplary computing system environment 100 of FIG. 1 being generally shown and discussed above, a discussion of the present invention in accordance with certain illustrated embodiments is provided below. With reference to FIG. 2, shown is a brokerage computer system for computational resources, referenced generally by numeral 200, in accordance with an illustrated embodiment. System 200 includes a brokerage computer system 220 coupled to communication network 210 for remotely coupling and communicating with a plurality of other computering devices. It is to be understood communication network 210 preferably consists of the Internet, and all known ancillary devices required to connect thereto. But communication network 210 may consist of any known networking means functional to couple remotely located computering devices.

System 200 further includes a plurality of buyer computering devices 230a-230k and a plurality of seller computering devices 240a-240k, each coupled to communication network 210. While system 200 is operative and configured for use with a plurality of buyer computering devices 230a-230k and a plurality of seller computering devices 240a-240k, for ease of description purposes, discussion below will only be made with reference to buyer computering device 230a and seller computering device 240a. Thus the illustrated embodiments of the invention are not to be understood to be limited to only buyer computering device 230a and seller computering device 240a, but rather encompasses a plurality of buyer computering devices 230a-230k and a plurality of seller computering devices 240a- 240k. Additionally, shown in FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an operational process flow for system 200, but again for ease and clarification of the illustrated embodiments, discussion below will only be made with reference to the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 2 as one skilled in the art would readily understand the process flow of FIG. 3 from the below description of the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 2.

With returning reference now to FIG. 2, the components of system 200 (e.g., brokerage system 220, and the plurality of buyer computering devices 230a-230k and the plurality of seller computering devices 240a-240k) are each to be understood to include components of system 100 as described above with reference to FIG. 1.

Additionally, each of the plurality of seller computering devices 240a-240k are to be understood to include a secure Virtual Machine (VM) processor 250 and encrypted database/storage device 260, the functionality and relevance of each will become apparent from the below description.

It is to be understood the system 200 of the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 2, provides a "Grid Exchange" of computational resources, via a broker system 220. The brokerage system 220 is operational and configured to establish a closed community of buyer computering systems 230 who have computational requirements that cannot be satisfied whether for economical reasons or otherwise. Preferably, and in accordance with the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 2, system 200 is a closed community (e.g., buyers 230 and sellers 240 may participate in system 200 by invitation only), however this is not to be understood to be limited to such a closed community architecture, as it may also encompass an open community architecture in other embodiments. The closed community of system 200 further encompasses seller computering systems 240 who preferably have excess computational capacity, for a host of reasons, including a desire to monetize and offset capital costs. Membership of the community is preferably by invite by the brokerage system 220, which membership maybe transparent and visible to other members. Brokerage system 220 preferably establishes a technical and legal framework to regularly vet community members to ensure their continued conformance to community membership requirements. It is noted these rules may vary from time-to-time but always through the majority agreement of community members and the brokerage system 220. Brokerage system 220 preferably manages the number of seller system 240 computational resources and buyer system 230 computational demands to balance computational supply and demand to maintain market stability. In accordance with the illustrated embodiment of system 200 of FIG. 2, there preferably is no minimum resource availability requirements for seller systems 240 (though seller systems 240 may be paid a premium for dedicated computational resources and regular rates). Further, preferably there is no minimum computational resource utilization requirements for buyer systems 230. Buyer systems 230 may acquire credits that can be drawn-down as the seller system 240 computational resources are used. Buyer systems 230 preferably pay for CPU core hours consumed (or alternatively, elapsed time, whichever is preferred), wherein there may be an option to obtain carbon credits to further benefit the buyers 230 and sellers 240 for transactions. Preferably, buyer system 230 processes available for transactions will be advertised to seller systems 240, via brokerage system 220. A seller system 240 may determine which buyer system 230 processes to run in their environment.

Further, the brokerage system 220 preferably does not receive the buyer systems 230 processes at any time during the setting up or execution of a transaction. In the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 2, the brokerage system 220 preferably does not receive the buyer system's 230 data during a transaction whereby the seller system 240 initiates a process to pull the buyer's 230 data into the seller's 240 computational environment so as to ensure the security of the system resources. Preferably, buyers 230 and sellers 240 are responsible for their respective

computational resources, processes and data, and the broker 220 will not be liable for its integrity or legality (e.g. knowing where data can be geographically sent or stored). Also in the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 2, each seller 240 and buyer 230 system is shown to include operational console software 270, with each seller system additionally including grid management software 280, the functionality of each which is discussed further below.

All network connections to execute a transaction will preferably be outbound from the seller system 240, preferably via secure connections. The brokerage system 220 preferably decides which commercial software packages will be permitted in the community wherein a buyer 230 and/or seller 240 can specify counterparty preferences for each transaction.

In the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 2, a seller system 240 processes may take priority of their own resources, but it is to be understood in other embodiments that seller system 240 processes need not take priority of their own resources. Sellers 240 will have the ability to reclaim their resources at will upon notifying the broker 220 and buyer systems 230 processes may run at reduced CPU priority. Thus, "CPU scavenging" may be utilized (in addition or alternative to VM techniques) to maximize excess CPU utilization. Further, sellers 240 may specify blackout times and thresholds when the processes may function.

Additionally, periodic end-to-end penetration tests may be performed by a third-party to ensure system integrity, which include end-to-end integrity checks of software, hardware and networks of system 200 to ensure that the services that are being advertised by sellers are the ones that are available. The brokerage system 220 preferably provides an "orchestration layer" which includes, but is not limited to: (1) a central repository of buyers 230 and seller 240 information, transaction

information, pricing and resource utilization data; (2) a fault-tolerant exchange hub to facilitate the transactions; (3) VPN connections into sellers' 240 environments to assess resource availability and obtain resource utilization data; (4) grid management software 280 at the sellers' environments to manage individual transactions; (5) compute nodes on available seller 240 resources to execute the transactions; (6) monitoring software to monitor the resources and transactions; (7) billing

functionality; and (8) a process to inventory all participating computational resources.

It is to be understood in accordance with the illustrated embodiment that buyer process software may be (dynamically) binded to components of the orchestration layer for fine-grained control, load balancing, etc. Smart load balancing may be employed to manage across the sets of sellers and within any seller's set of resources via the grid management software 280 for executing the individual work units wherein there is preferably the option for buyer systems 230 to specify redundant process instances at additional cost to increase throughput and improve

computational reliability. Brokerage system 220 preferably maintains a reserved computational resource to be used in the event a given transaction fails at a seller system's 240 site when no other resources are otherwise in system 200.

Additionally, there may be an option for buyer systems 230 to specify expiration times on work units and aggregate jobs as a whole if computational resources are unavailable so as to move their jobs to alternative environments. Data storage options are preferably provided to improve performance, protect sensitive data and for regulatory compliance.

Buyer system 230 processes preferably execute in a secure Virtual Machine (VM) container 250 that may provide a standard interface for buyer process operations, to ease installation & support and mitigate security concerns. Buyer systems 230 may be configured to start, stop, pause and query the status of their processes, including of sub-processes when requested. Buyer systems 230 may also specify blackout times and thresholds. Further, buyer system 230 processes may be "black box" tested (preferably in a neutral environment) and digitally certified to ensure compliance with the secure virtual machine container's standards. Buyer system 230 processes and accompanying control software may include checksums and other verification techniques to ensure their integrity before being provided to seller systems 240. Seller systems 240 may test the validity of a buyer system 230 process in their own or a secure third-party environment before making it available for executing transactions. Buyer systems 230 will preferably not be able to directly access seller system 240 environments, and may only do so via the brokerage system 220 control mechanisms. The brokerage system 200 preferably monitors and reports behavior to both parties to analyze usage and for troubleshooting via the grid management software 280.

Unusual/unexpected behavior may result in the shutdown of errant secure virtual machine containers or all processing within a given seller' s 240 environment. A seller system 240 is preferably able to monitor behavior outside the secure virtual machine containers 250 (i.e. non-intrusively). Seller systems 240 preferably have the technical and legal ability to terminate transactions or any parts thereof. The secure virtual machine container 250 and other control processes provide automated recovery and restart. End-to-end encryption may optionally be performed on the buyer's 230 data to ensure its security and integrity while being transferred to and when in the seller' s environment. If encrypted, the data may optionally be decrypted in the secure virtual machine container 250. It is to be understood all encrypted operations will be performed with off-site keys.

System 200 may further provide an operational console 270 operational and configured to upload processes and (encrypted) data on-demand or batch via an Application Programming Interface (API). The operational console 270 will preferably be used to advertise current, future and historical prices,

utilization/reservation levels and any other granular and aggregate data as captured by the exchange hub and required for both sellers and buyers to have full visibility into the operation of the market. The operational console 270 may further ensure that buyers 230 and sellers 240 can only see aggregate data across other buyers 230 and sellers 240 respectively. The operational console 270 may preferably be configured and operational to define counterparty preferences and provide price and utilization alerts under parameters provided by the members of the community of system 200. A still further feature of system 200 of the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 2 is there will be different tiers of resources charged at different rates, but buyers 230 will only pay for their usage at the prices agreed at time of purchase. The pricing mechanism is preferably based on a formula that will include, but is not be limited to, such things as CPU core speed, process priorities/time limits, bandwidth utilization, and the like. Resource prices are preferably based dynamically on real-time supply & demand, though buyers 230 and sellers 240 will be able to specify future prices, limit orders, etc.

With a general description of system 200 being provided above, its method of operation will now be discussed with reference to FIG. 4 (and with continuing reference to FIG. 2). Starting at step 410, when a buyer 230 engages brokerage system 220 for acquiring computational resources, and with control and operational console software 270 of brokerage system 220 implemented on the buyer system 230, the buyer's VM images of the process that the buyer desires to have executed on a seller system 240 is first preferably tested, preferably in a trusted and neutral environment (e.g., on a seller's system 240). Next, the brokerage system 220 performs a dynamic matching between the buyer's 230 aforesaid computational request with the available seller systems 240 to determine a match therebetween (step 420). Once a match is determined, computer resources are queried and dynamically allocated for processing in the sellers system 230 via the grid management software 280, preferably based on various parameters and rules (e.g., type of resources required, period/timing of processing, cost) via brokerage system 220 (step 430). Next, data to be processed is preferably pulled by the grid management software 280 from the buyer's system 230 directly by the aforesaid seller system 240 determined to perform the processing for the buyer system 230 (step 440). It is noted the aforesaid pulled buyers 230 data is preferably stored in an encrypted file store 260 provided in the seller system 240.

Processing of the buyer system 230 data is now preferably performed in the VM 250 provided by one of the sellers system's 240 using appropriate parameters (step 450). Via a local management node provided in system 200 and the brokerage system 220 reporting console software implemented on the seller system 240, monitoring and reporting usage of the seller system 240 computational resources is provided preferably to both the buyer system 230 and the brokerage system 220 (step 460). Once processing is completed on the seller system 240, the resulting data is preferably pushed directly from the seller system 240 to the buyer system 230 (step 470).

Additionally, usage and billing records are correspondingly updated with alerts being provided to both buyers 230 and sellers 240. Thus, it is to be understood and appreciated that there are numerous academic and commercial "cloud" or "grid" solutions available that provide the basis of the technical framework for the present invention. Until the present invention, one reason for the lack of wide spread (commercial) success of existing solutions is that none have comprehensive technical, legal and commercial frameworks required to satisfy institutions who are be highly sensitive about their intellectual property and resources (to mention nothing of possible regulatory and compliance issues).

The above presents a description of a best mode contemplated for carrying out the present invention, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use these systems and methods. The present invention is, however, susceptible to modifications and alternative method steps from those discussed above that are fully equivalent. Consequently, the present invention is not limited to the particular embodiments disclosed. On the contrary, the present invention encompasses all modifications and alternative constructions and methods coming within the spirit and scope of the present invention.

The descriptions above and the accompanying drawings should be interpreted in the illustrative and not the limited sense. While the invention has been disclosed in connection with the preferred embodiment or embodiments thereof, it should be understood that there may be other embodiments which fall within the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims. Where a claim, if any, is expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function, it is intended that such claim be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof, including both structural equivalents and equivalent structures, material-based equivalents and equivalent materials, and act- based equivalents and equivalent acts.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A system for allocating a plurality of seller computer devices, each having an available computational resource capacity, to a plurality of buyer computer devices for delivering one of a plurality of computational services to said buyer computer devices, said seller computer devices and said buyer computer devices being arranged in a computer network, the system coupling a suggested one of the plurality of seller computer devices to a requesting one of the plurality of buyer computer devices requesting a one of the plurality of services, the requesting one of the plurality of the buyer computer devices making a request for one of the plurality of services to the suggested one of the plurality of seller computer devices, the suggested one of the plurality of seller computer devices operating to accept the request for said one of the plurality of services when the seller computer devices has sufficient resources, the system comprising:

a) a broker including:

(i) means for receiving buyer computer device request for said service; and

(ii) means for suggesting by the broker one of said seller computer devices to one of said buyer computer devices making a request based on an available resource capacity.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said means for suggesting further includes means for creating a seller computer device list of available computational services.

3. The system of claim 1 further including means for monitoring each of said seller computer devices when they are at least functional to process data received from a buyer computer device.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the computer network includes the Internet.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein each of said seller computer device includes a VM processor for processing data received from a buyer computer device.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein each of said seller computer device includes an encrypted database for storing data received from a buyer computer device.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the broker is configured and operational to create a VM image of the process a buyer computer device desires to execute on a seller computer device.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the VM image of the process a buyer computer device desires to execute on a seller computer device is verified in a trusted computational environment.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein each seller computer device is configured and operational to allocate computational resources to satisfy data processing demands requested by a said buyer computer device.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein data to be processed is pulled from a buyer computer device by a selected seller computer device.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein resulting processed data is pushed from a said selected seller computer device to a said buyer computer device which provided data to be processed by said selected seller computer device.

12. The system of claim 1 which includes a closed community of seller and buyer computer devices wherein the broker prescribes membership requirements for the community and monitors each said seller and buyer computer device for adherence to said membership requirements.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the broker is configured and operational to control seller computer resources and buyer computer demands.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the broker does not receive data requested to be processed by a seller computer device from a said buyer computer device.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein a said seller computer device determines which said buyer computer device to couple with so as to process data from said buyer computer device.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein each said buyer and seller device is configured and operational to select a respective counterparty said buyer and seller device to engage with for processing buyer computer device data.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein each said seller computer device is configured and operational to reclaim computer resources when processing data received from a said buyer computer device and to also prescribe non-operational periods and processing thresholds for processing data received from a said buyer computer device.

18. The system of claim 1 wherein the broker is operational and configured to perform end-to-end integrity checks of software, hardware and networks to be utilized by each said seller computer device for processing data received from a said buyer computer device.

19. The system of claim 1 wherein the broker is operational and configured to establish Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections with each said seller computer device to assess resource availability, manage transactions and resource utilization data with each said seller computer device.

20. The system of claim 1 wherein the broker is operational and configured to enable a buyer computer device to specify redundant processes to be performed on a plurality of buyer computer devices.