Abstract: A system is described for allocating a resource (such as available power) among components (such as virtual machines) within a computing environment (such as a data center). The system allocates the resource by taking account of both a system-wide consumption budget and the prevailing quality-of-service expectations of the components. The system distributes its management functionality between a main control module and agents provided in one or more components (e.g., virtual machines). The main control module includes a budget controller, while each component includes a bid-generation controller. A main resource manager module (within the main control module) generates allocations of resource based on an output of the budget controller and bids provided by respective bid-generation controllers.