Patent attributes
A system prioritizes workflows based on priority levels and calculates an amount of resource consumption associated with the workflows. Each client starts a predefined time period with a certain amount of credits that indicate a degree of resource consumption. Workflows may be run with high priorities using credits. Workflows that are run with higher priorities are scheduled to run before workflows with lower priorities. A degree of resource consumption for running a workflow may be calculated based on resources consumed by the system, such as central processing unit (CPU), memory storage, network usage and elapsed time. The degree of resource consumption for running a workflow may be calculated and converted to an amount of credits and the respective amount of credits may be deducted from a credit balance associated with the client's account. The degree of resource consumption associated with a workflow may be estimated before the workflow starts running.