Excess Entropy in Computer Systems

Modern data centers house tens of thousands of servers in complex layouts. That requires sophisticated reporting – turning available terabytes of data into information. The classical approach was introduced decades ago to handle a small number of lightly connected computers. Today, we also need to identify problematic groups of servers, strange patterns in load, and changes in composition with minimal human involvement. The authors show how, as a single concept, entropy can describe multiple aspects of system use. Entropy is well grounded in physics, used in economics, and the authors extend it to large computer systems.