AKS Configurable Scheduler Profiles
Your Kubernetes clusters are likely running well below capacity and underutilized resources materially contribute to increased infrastructure cost. In 2025, Datadog found most Kubernetes containers use less than [25% of their requested CPU][datadog-state-of-containers], and in 2023, Weights and Biases found that nearly a third of GPU users [averaged less than 15% utilization][wb-gpu-utilization]. Although node utilization is influenced by multiple factors, the kube-scheduler is a key Kubernetes control plane component that plays a critical role in how efficiently workloads are placed across nodes.
[Configurable Scheduler Profiles][concepts-scheduler-configuration] on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) let you configure your own scheduling logic: enable specific plugins, adjust plugin priorities, and tune parameter weights. The result: higher node density, better CPU and GPU utilization, and lower infrastructure costs.
You'll learn how the default Kubernetes scheduler places pods, where the defaults fall short, and how to increase node utilization with Configurable Scheduler Profiles on AKS.