DOI 10.1109/CACSD.2011.6044541This is the first part of a paper that provides an overview of some applications of control theory to computing systems. With the advent of cloud computing and more affordable computing infrastructures, computing engineers are looking for control theory to provide rigorous tools to analyze and design computing systems and algorithms. On the other hand, control systems have greatly benefited from the advent of distributed and affordable computing infrastructure. In part I we will focus on control applications at the data center level.Permitted by IEEE http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=604454