1. A method for resource optimization of map/reduce computing in a computing cluster, the method comprising: receiving a computational problem for processing in a map/reduce module executing in memory by at least one processor of a computer; subdividing the computational problem into a set of sub-problems and mapping a selection of the sub-problems in the set to respective nodes in a computing cluster; computing for a subset of the nodes in the computing cluster a required resource capacity of the subset of the nodes to process a mapped one of the sub-problems and an existing capacity of the subset of the nodes; and, augmenting the existing capacity of a subset of one of the nodes to an augmented capacity when the required resource capacity exceeds the existing capacity, and when a cost of augmenting the existing capacity to the augmented capacity does not exceed a penalty for breaching a service level agreement (SLA) for the computing cluster.