MORPHOSYS: Efficient Colocation of QoS-Constrained Workloads in the Cloud

TL;DR

MorphoSys introduces a flexible SLA model and a framework that enable more efficient colocation of workloads in cloud environments, significantly reducing resource waste while maintaining application performance.

Contribution

The paper presents MorphoSys, a novel framework that manipulates SLAs using periodic resource models to improve workload colocation efficiency in clouds.

Findings

Up to 60% reduction in resource waste.

Effective colocation of Video-on-Demand servers.

Trace-driven simulations validate efficiency gains.

Abstract

In hosting environments such as IaaS clouds, desirable application performance is usually guaranteed through the use of Service Level Agreements (SLAs), which specify minimal fractions of resource capacities that must be allocated for use for proper operation. Arbitrary colocation of applications with different SLAs on a single host may result in inefficient utilization of the host's resources. In this paper, we propose that periodic resource allocation and consumption models be used for a more granular expression of SLAs. Our proposed SLA model has the salient feature that it exposes flexibilities that enable the IaaS provider to safelya transform SLAs from one form to another for the purpose of achieving more efficient colocation. Towards that goal, we present MorphoSys: a framework for a service that allows the manipulation of SLAs to enable efficient colocation of workloads. We present results from extensive trace-driven simulations of colocated Video-on-Demand servers in a cloud setting. The results show that potentially-significant reduction in wasted resources (by as much as 60%) are possible using MorphoSys.