US Patent 8966495 Dynamic virtual machine consolidation

At a first physical computing machine executing a plurality of virtual machines and connected to a network, one or more virtual machine metrics for each virtual machine are calculated. Each virtual machine metric represents a workload of a resource of the first physical computing machine due to the execution of a corresponding virtual machine. Additionally, one or more corresponding physical machine metrics that represent a total workload of the corresponding resource of the first physical computing machine due to the execution of the plurality of virtual machines are also calculated. Based on the one or more physical machine metrics, a determination is made that at least one of the plurality of virtual machines should be migrated to one of a plurality of other physical computing machines connected to the network. A first virtual machine is selected for migration to a selected second physical computing machine.