If a CPU utilization is consistently over the baseline, what is this situation referred to as?

When CPU utilization consistently exceeds the baseline, this situation is referred to as variance. Variance in this context indicates a significant discrepancy from the expected performance level, which has been established as the baseline. A baseline is set based on normal operational metrics, and continuous usage above this threshold is a clear sign that something within the system or application may not be functioning as anticipated, potentially indicating performance issues, resource contention, or increased load.

Variance highlights the change from what is known to be normal, which can prompt further investigation to understand the underlying causes, such as application behavior, workload changes, or system inefficiencies. In cloud environments, monitoring CPU usage against the baseline is crucial for ensuring that applications remain performant and resource costs are controlled.

While other concepts like deviations or imbalances can relate to performance metrics, they do not encapsulate the consistent nature of exceeding the baseline as effectively as variance does.