According to Big Blue, its invention should pave the way for more efficient software defined networking and allow cloud systems to better handle bursts.
IBM was awarded a patent for dynamically managing network bandwidth in a cloud computing environment. IBM's bet is that its invention can optimize cloud computing performance.
The patent, U.S. Patent No. 8,352,953, is for a method that automatically decides the best way for users to access a cloud system based on available network bandwidth.
IBM said that the approach should allow clouds to better handle surges in traffic because systems can reassign work to system nodes with bandwidth. Usually, a cloud user has access to a virtual machine and the more people tap the system the more networking bandwidth matters.
According to Big Blue, its approach should pave the way for more efficient software defined networking, which automates and dynamically manages bandwidth and the infrastructure that goes with it.
Here's a chart from the patent filing explaining how the method works.