1. A computer readable storage medium embodied within a hardware device with executable instructions specifying the execution of a state machine operating across a plurality of computing nodes in a distributed computing system, comprising executable instructions to: execute a plurality of operators, wherein the execution of each operator is under the control of a state machine that periodically invokes pause control states to pause the execution of an operator in response to a violation of a service level agreement specifying an operating condition threshold within the distributed computing system; form partitions of input data that are worked on independently within the distributed computing system; process a set of data batches associated with the input data; specify data partition control states to process the partitions associated with the set of data batches; and define key control states to process a set of keys associated with a data partition of the partitions.