US Patent 11016813 Optimizing initiator allocation

An approach for allocating mainframe resources in a networked computing environment (e.g., a cloud computing environment) is provided. In an embodiment, each workload that executes on a mainframe system is classified into one or a plurality of workload classes. Each workload class has workloads that share a common objective. A historical allocation of initiators for each workload class over time is analyzed. Based on this analysis, a number of allocation selections, which each assign a number of initiators to each workload class, are generated based on the historical utilization data. The allocation selection that is ultimately implemented is selected from these allocation selections based on KPI factors.