A method, computer program product, and system for optimizing service pools supporting resource sharing and enforcing SLAs, to minimize service restart. A computer processor determines a first resource to be idle, wherein a service instance continues to occupy the first resource that is idle. The processor adds the first resource to a resource pool, wherein the service instance continues to occupy the first resource as a global standby service instance on the first resource. The processor receives a request for a resource, wherein the request for the resource includes a global name associated with a service that corresponds to the global standby service instance, and the processor allocates, from the resource pool, the first resource having the global standby service instance, based on the request for the resource that includes the global name associated with the service corresponding to the global standby service instance.