How Cloud Systems Automatically Assign Virtual Machines to Servers
A method for cloud services to automatically choose the best server for a task by filtering out impossible options and then ranking the remaining ones.
Original patent title: “Placing objects on hosts using hard and soft constraints”
A method for cloud services to automatically choose the best server for a task by filtering out impossible options and then ranking the remaining ones. Granted to Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC in 2015 with 23 claims and 3 forward citations.
Key facts
Coverage
What does this patent actually cover?
This patent describes an automated system for managing cloud infrastructure, such as assigning virtual machines or databases to physical servers. It uses a two-step filtering process: first, it applies 'hard constraints' to disqualify any server that cannot physically or logically handle the task (like a server that is already full or lacks the required hardware). Second, it applies 'soft constraints' to rank the remaining servers based on performance preferences, such as spreading out workloads to avoid bottlenecks. This ensures that redundant services are placed on different physical machines, preventing a single hardware failure from taking down an entire application.
The gap
What does this patent NOT cover?
- Does not cover manual placement of objects by a human administrator.
- Does not cover systems that rely solely on a single-step selection process without distinguishing between hard and soft constraints.
- Does not cover the internal logic of how a virtual machine operates once it is placed on a host.
- Does not cover hardware-level circuit switching or physical network cabling.
These exclusions are unique to PatentBrief — derived from the actual claim language, not patent-office boilerplate.
What made this novel
The innovation lies in the strict separation of 'hard' (binary pass/fail) and 'soft' (optimization-based) constraints, which allows the system to quickly prune the search space before performing more complex calculations on the remaining candidates.
Schematic visualization of the patent's claim structure. Hand-drawn diagrams in progress for each landmark patent.
Where you've seen this
Real-world examples
Microsoft Azure resource scheduling
Automated virtual machine load balancing
Data center capacity management software
Why it matters
The bigger picture
As cloud computing grew, manually deciding where to put thousands of virtual machines became impossible. This patent provides a structured, scalable way to manage large-scale data centers, which is essential for the reliability of modern cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. It helps ensure that services remain online even when individual physical servers fail.
Filed
October 20, 2010
Granted
July 7, 2015
Market context
Who's building on this
Companies in this space
Microsoft continues to integrate this type of logic into its Azure cloud platform. Other major cloud providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) utilize similar automated scheduling algorithms to manage their massive server fleets.
Market impact
This technology enabled the transition from static, manually configured data centers to dynamic, self-healing cloud environments. By automating placement, it allowed cloud providers to scale to millions of users while maintaining high availability and performance standards.
Claim 1 — Plain English
What this patent covers
This patent describes an automated system for managing cloud infrastructure, such as assigning virtual machines or databases to physical servers. It uses a two-step filtering process: first, it applies 'hard constraints' to disqualify any server that cannot physically or logically handle the task (like a server that is already full or lacks the required hardware). Second, it applies 'soft constraints' to rank the remaining servers based on performance preferences, such as spreading out workloads to avoid bottlenecks. This ensures that redundant services are placed on different physical machines, preventing a single hardware failure from taking down an entire application.
The clever bit
The innovation lies in the strict separation of 'hard' (binary pass/fail) and 'soft' (optimization-based) constraints, which allows the system to quickly prune the search space before performing more complex calculations on the remaining candidates.
What it does not cover
- Does not cover manual placement of objects by a human administrator.
- Does not cover systems that rely solely on a single-step selection process without distinguishing between hard and soft constraints.
- Does not cover the internal logic of how a virtual machine operates once it is placed on a host.
- Does not cover hardware-level circuit switching or physical network cabling.
Patent timeline
Application submitted to the patent office
Application published, typically 18 months after filing
Patent officially issued
PatentBrief Score
Impact Score
Moderate
Citation count
12/40
Early citations
Claim breadth
15/20
Broad claimsclaimsThe numbered statements at the end of a patent that legally define what the inventor owns.Read more →
Recency
5/20
Granted 10–20 years ago
Assignee scale
20/20
Major company or institution
PatentBrief Impact Score — based on citation count, claim breadth, recency, and assignee scale. Not a legal assessment.
Heuristic Value Estimate
What this patent might be worth
$55K – $175K
Midpoint $109K · 4.3 yr remaining · industry ×1.6
Heuristic only — blends forward/backward citation counts, claim scope, time remaining, litigation history, and CPC-derived industry baseline. Real valuations need a professional appraisal.
The original legal language
Original claims
23 claims as filed with the patent office.
Concepts involved
Citations
Patent lineage
Cite this patent
Lerma, E. R., Simek, P., Rosenthal, D., Windle, M. K., & Hopmann, A. (2015). How Cloud Systems Automatically Assign Virtual Machines to Servers (U.S. Patent No. 9,075,661). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/9075661/hyper-v-virtualization
Auto-generated from the patent record. Double-check author order and the issue date against the official USPTO document before submitting.
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Common Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
What does How Cloud Systems Automatically Assign Virtual Machines to Servers cover?
A method for cloud services to automatically choose the best server for a task by filtering out impossible options and then ranking the remaining ones.
Who owns patent US 9075661?
Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC owns this patent, granted in 2015.
When does this patent expire?
This patent is expected to expire on July 7, 2035, when the invention enters the public domain.
What is patent US 9075661 cited by?
This patent has been cited by 3 later patents that build on its ideas.
What problem does this patent solve?
As cloud computing grew, manually deciding where to put thousands of virtual machines became impossible. This patent provides a structured, scalable way to manage large-scale data centers, which is essential for the reliability of modern cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. It helps ensure that services remain online even when individual physical servers fail.
What does this patent NOT cover?
Does not cover manual placement of objects by a human administrator.
Same assignee
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