Analysis of an approach to increase energy efficiency of a cloud computing system

Enhancing energy efficiency of cloud computing systems is one of the key challenges for cloud providers. One of the most obvious ways to decrease energy consumption is dynamic control of switched on servers according to the system load. However, this approach leads to additional energy and time loss due to switching on/off of computing resources. Recent research shows that the additional energy and time loss may significantly decrease positive effect of dynamic control. In this regard, cloud providers employ various mechanisms that decrease server switching number. One of the mechanisms is considered in the paper. We consider a cloud computing system, in which a server does not switch off immediately, as it remains empty but after a certain time. We develop a mathematical model of a cloud computing system with switch on/off periods and analyze its energy efficiency metrics. We investigate how energy efficiency of a cloud system is affected by a waiting time before a server goes to standby mode. © 2017 CEUR-WS. All rights reserved.