Performance and Energy Savings Trade-Off with Uncertainty-Aware Cloud Workload Forecasting

Diego Carraro, Andrea Rossi, Andrea Visentin, Steven D. Prestwich, Kenneth N. Brown

Abstract: Cloud computing has seen widespread adoption because it increases the productivity and efficiency of industries and allows for effective scalability of their business [1]. Guaranteeing performance levels is at the core of cloud services and requires huge computational resources, especially with the latest advances in technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things [2]. Typically, customers subscribe to agreements where cloud providers ensure specific levels of reliability, availability and responsiveness to systems and applications and describe penalties if the service levels are not met. At the same time, massive computational resources are a cost for providers and have a significant environmental impact, which will increase in the future. It is estimated that the energy consumption of data centres (which host cloud services) will grow from 292 TWh in 2016 to 353 TWh in 2030 [3], and greenhouse gas emissions will increase over 14% in 2040, compared to a 1-1.6% increase in the 2007–2016 [4].