1. A computer system for allocating computing tasks in a computer network, comprising: a plurality of server computers connected to the computer network that are configured as image storage and image retrieval computers and configured to prioritize server tasks, wherein the server tasks comprise image storage tasks and image retrieval tasks; a plurality of processor computers connected to the computer network that are configured as image processing computers and configured to prioritize image processing tasks; wherein each server computer is further adapted to send a request to the plurality of processor computers for an image processing task when at least partially idle, wherein the request has an associated expiration time that specifies a time that a requesting server computer has available to complete the requested image processing task; and wherein each processor computer is further adapted to send, when not idle, an image processing task to the requesting server computer within the associated expiration time.