Taming The Cloud: For Providers, Developers, And The Planet ECE Seminar Date: Wednesday, December 17, 2025 Time: 4:30 pm Location: B205 Engineering Quadrangle Speaker: Mohammad Shahrad, The University of British Columbia Abstract: Cloud computing has made deploying applications at planetary scale almost effortless, but that very ease often creates inefficiencies in how resources are allocated and used. Characterizing production could-native settings at Azure and IBM Cloud, we found many sources of inefficiencies as well as opportunities for automated configuration and resource management. When provider-level automation falls short, lightweight developer tools and middleware can help close the gap, improving efficiency and predictability. As the global footprint of this sector is growing rapidly, efficiency can no longer be measured by performance and cost alone. We show why incorporating sustainability and energy impact into our metrics is increasingly essential during design and operation. Bio: Mohammad Shahrad is an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of British Columbia (UBC), where he leads the Cloud Infrastructure Research for Reliability, Usability, and Sustainability (CIRRUS) Lab. Prior to joining UBC, he was a Computer Science Lecturer at Princeton University, and he earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering also from Princeton in 2020 under the supervision of Prof. David Wentzlaff. During his Ph.D., he spent a year at Microsoft Research working on cloud efficiency projects. Mohammad’s recent research has focused on advancing the sustainability, efficiency, and user experience of cloud-native systems. His research has been supported by industry and government partners including IBM, Rogers, Huawei, NSERC, and MITACS. Mohammad's research has won the USENIX Community Award, been deployed in production at two large cloud providers, and been featured in the press.