Systems, methods, apparatus, and computer program products are provided for monitoring and allocating shared resources. For example, in one embodiment, the status of resource dependent entities is continuously monitored to determine the current use of a shared resource. When a resource dependent entity requires use of the shared resource, a (a) request for use of the shared resource can be generated and (b) determination can be made as to whether any of the current allocations of the shared resource can be released for use by the resource dependent entity.