Predictive Autoscaling of Systems using Artificial Neural Networks

Autoscalers handle the scaling of instances in a system automatically based on specified thresholds such as CPU utilization. Reactive autoscalers do not take the delay of initiating a new instance into account, which may lead to overutilization. By applying machine learning methodology to predict future loads and the desired number of instances, it is possible to preemptively initiate scaling such that new instances are available before demand occurs. Leveraging efficient scaling policies keeps the costs and energy consumption low while ensuring the availability of the system. In this thesis, the predictive capability of different multilayer perceptron configurations is investigated to elicit a suitable model for a telecom support system. The results indicate that it is possible to accurately predict future load using a multilayer perceptron regressor model. However, the possibility of reproducing the results in a live environment is questioned as the dataset used is derived from a simulation