Allocated (from English allocate — to distribute or assign) is a term that refers to the process of assigning or reserving resources for a specific task, device, or user. In IT and telecommunications, it describes a situation in which a portion of computing, network, or memory resources is dedicated to a particular process or system component.
Principle of Operation
When a resource is considered allocated, it means the system has taken it from the general pool of available resources and temporarily reserved it for use by a specific object.
For example, when a program starts, the operating system allocates a certain amount of RAM, CPU time, and, if necessary, network ports for it.
A similar principle applies in data centers: part of a server’s CPU power, memory, or disk space can be allocated to a specific client or virtual machine. Once the process is completed, the resources are released and returned to the common pool.
Applications
The term is used in various contexts:
- In computing systems – when allocating RAM between processes;
- In virtualization – when assigning host resources to virtual machines;
- In cloud infrastructures – when reserving compute nodes, IP addresses, or storage volumes;
- In networking – when assigning communication channels, bandwidth, or IP ranges to users.
For example, if a cloud provider reports that resources are allocated, it means they are reserved for a specific task and are unavailable to other users.
Advantages
Resource allocation enables efficient capacity management and prevents conflicts when multiple processes access system components simultaneously. It ensures predictable performance, system stability, and accurate resource usage tracking.
Example of Use
In a virtualization system, an administrator can specify that each virtual machine is allocated 8 GB of RAM and 4 CPU cores. These resources will remain exclusively available to that VM until it is stopped or reconfigured.