Unpredictable and random workloads

Unpredictable and random workloads are a generalization of periodic workloads as they require elasticity but are not predictable. Unplanned provisioning and de-provisioning of IT resources is required. The necessary provisioning and decommissioning of IT resources are, therefore, automated to align the resource numbers to the changing workload. Many applications experience a long-term change in workload that can be characterized as a continuously changing workload. This is normally seen as an ongoing continuous growth or decline of use. The elasticity of clouds enables applications experiencing continuously changing workloads to provision or decommission resources with the same rate as the workload changes.

The following table provides a cross-reference between the solution use cases outlined in Chapter 4, Business Drivers, Metrics, and Use Cases, application workloads described here, and the standard operational requirements also addressed earlier. Once application user requirements are established, the table can be used to develop a documented initial draft of your cloud solution operational requirements: