A state controller for an electronic reprographic system for controlling system operations when processing requests in which the system has a plurality of hardware and software system components providing discrete services for processing requests and maintaining operation of the system, and job programming means including a display screen for inputting requests, including: a state holder for monitoring the current operating state of the system components; plural discrete job processing virtual machines with each of the virtual machines having at least one service associated with it for implementing the virtual machine; each of the services having at least one of the system components for carrying out the service; and a scheduler for managing resources of and setting priorities for the virtual machines to process the requests in an efficient manner, the scheduler being adapted to cause memory from a first one of the virtual machines to be distributed to a second one of the virtual machines when the second one of the virtual machines requests more memory than is normally allocated to it.