System and method for improving memory usage in virtual machines

An apparatus comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• a non-transitory memory device, said memory device storing instructions for a method of controlling a memory allocation among a plurality of concurrently-running virtual machines (VMs), said method comprising:
• monitoring a central processing unit (CPU) usage and a memory usage of each said VM, as executed by at least one processor on at least one computer;
• detecting that a first VM of the plurality of concurrently-running VMs requires more memory;
• and
• exercising a memory allocation mechanism for allocating additional memory to the first VM;
• and
• allocating the additional memory to the first VM,
• wherein the additional memory to be allocated is determined based upon considering a cost of increasing a central processing unit (CPU) usage of the concurrently-running VMs in order to reallocate memory to said first VM.

An apparatus comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• a non-transitory memory device storing instructions for a method of controlling a memory allocation among a plurality of concurrently-running virtual machines (VMs),
• said method comprising:
• setting a target central processing unit (CPU) usage level for each said VM;
• monitoring a CPU usage and a memory usage of each said VM, as executed by at least one processor on at least one computer;
• detecting that a virtual machine is exceeding its target CPU usage level;
• and
• reducing a level of a memory optimization being executed on said virtual machine detected as exceeding its target CPU usage level.