VIRTUAL MACHINE LOAD BALANCING

A method for load balancing virtual machines includes accessing specification and utilization information for selected networked hardware platforms published on a network, the networked hardware platforms configured to run virtual machines and scoring the selected networked hardware platforms based on parameters from the utilization information to indicate resource availability for each of the selected networked hardware platforms. The method also includes removing a networked hardware platform from the selected networked hardware platforms based on a collocation policy to produce candidate platforms to receive a first virtual machine, wherein the collocation policy prohibits placement of the first virtual machine on the networked hardware platform based on at least one of consumer rules, provider rules, and industry rules.