Capacity Planning in the Cloud Computing Industry Under Time and Demand Uncertainties

The rapid digital transformation of business organizations has catalyzed the unprecedented growth of the public cloud services industry. However, this surge has brought forth formidable challenges for cloud service and infrastructure providers, particularly in capacity planning for data center expansion. Key challenges include the extended and fluctuating lead times coupled with uncertain demand. This monograph elucidates the typical data center capacity planning problem, emphasizing two pivotal challenges: time and quantity uncertainties. We introduce two distinct modeling frameworks, drawing inspiration from two prominent studies in other industries, to tackle these challenges individually. Moreover, we highlight that a comprehensive perspective on cloud capacity planning is needed, advocating for an integrated approach that accounts for both time and demand quantity uncertainties. Such a holistic viewpoint promises to inspire novel and impactful avenues for future research in this domain.