Described is a method for allocating a central application resource. Upon a determination that a user has depleted an allocation of the resource, a request for an additional allocation of the resource is generated. The user is a member of a group of users that is a subset of all users of the central application resource. After determining that the request is valid according to a policy defining rules for allocation relevant to the user, the additional allocation is provided to the user. An allocation of the resource is reduced for one or more other users in the group so that a total allocation of the resource for the group remains unchanged.