How Can an Enterprise Achieve over 50% Server Utilization (With the Industry’s Average of 15%)?

And why it matters.

FishOS Workload Manager was developed exclusively by Sardina Systems

Imagine staying in your house for only one day, but keeping the lights on throughout the entire week. It sounds ridiculous, yet that is what cloud computing is for the majority of enterprises.

According to a McKinsey survey and several other sources, the average server utilization rate in data centers is a mere 15%, while the reservation rate is 80%. This means that servers are consuming energy and incurring costs without carrying the workload they should be.

The Natural Resources Defense Council reports that the average server utilization is between at 12 to 18%. Other researchers estimate an even lower figure, around 10%.

This underutilization of servers not only leads to increased costs and wasted resources but also has detrimental environmental effects. Consequently, there is a need for solutions that can significantly increase server utilization.

The Root of the Problem

Most data centers rely on virtualization. So essentially, the root cause of server underutilization lies in the ineffective placement and rebalancing of virtual machines on hosts.

While optimally placing and rebalancing VMs may seem straightforward, the reality is far more complex.

Every time new VMs are created, they must find a suitable home within the system. For example, ‘Bare’ or Vanilla OpenStack scatters new machines uniformly across all available hosts, failing to optimize host numbers efficiently and reserving unnecessary resources. Similarly, migrating VMs from one server to another for workload balancing presents challenges.

How Does FishOS Solve the Problem?

Here’s where Sardina Systems steps in with its innovative cloud management platform, FishOS. Specifically, its Workload Manager component and workload packing mechanics help our clients achieve better server utilization rate. Built on a foundation of high-performance computing, FishOS can achieve server utilization rate of up to 50% through the following steps:

• Continuously collects data on the live resource consumption of VMs in the cloud environment. This data is used to estimate the capacity of hosts and later help make decisions about VM placement and rebalancing.
• Uses the collected data to accurately place VMs. FishOS’ algorithms take into account a variety of factors: resource consumption, availability, and the expected workload. This ensures efficient VM placement, resulting in fewer servers operating at higher capacity, rather than loads of hosts that are being utilized at 15%.
• Automatically rebalances hosts to ensure proper utilization. For rebalancing, the algorithm uses a similar logic. As a result, hosts are neither overutilized nor underutilization.

Additional Benefits of FishOS

In addition to optimizing server utilization, FishOS offers several other advantages:

• Reduced energy consumption, leading to cost savings and environmental benefits.
• Increased flexibility, allowing cloud environments to scale up or down to meet varying demands.
• Quality service and best-in-class tech support are included in the product price, eliminating hidden payments throughout your journey.

How Can Different Industries Benefit from FishOS and Workload Manager

We know that describing algorithms might seem abstract. Here are some real-world scenarios where using FishOS can bring significant benefits:

• Retail: Retailers often experience spikes in traffic during the holiday season. FishOS can redistribute the workload across existing instances during these spikes, removing the need for additional servers.
• Financial services: Timely service is paramount in finance. Delayed transactions can damage reputations and upset clients. With its real-time monitoring and rebalancing prowess, FishOS prevents server overload way in advance, resulting in reliable services and enhanced reputation.
• IT service providers: IT service providers often have to deal with fluctuating workloads from multiple clients. FishOS can help to ensure that resources are allocated efficiently, ensuring a predictable Total Cost of Ownership.

Conclusion

With its innovative Workload Manager component, FishOS helps businesses achieve high server utilization rates that are unimaginable in the industry. It is easy to use and offers a set of benefits, including reduced energy consumption and improved performance.