Smoothing is not Smoothies

[gustavoleo]

Microsoft should allow users to choose whether to enable smoothing rather than making it a mandatory feature.

The smoothing capability should be an option, not an imposition from Microsoft.

Smoothing introduces uncertainty, making it difficult to optimize costs for a Microsoft Fabric subscription.

Additionally, smoothing is causing challenges across multiple areas, as highlighted in discussions within the Microsoft Fabric Community. Search - Microsoft Fabric Community

[Tim_Wissing]

I would also like the idea to be able to configure smoothing time per Item for example. Lets say I have a job running every day at the same time. Right now, this would create a permanent capacity usage since when it smoothes out, the next run will take the same amount of capacity. Also assume I know that at night only 50% of my capacity is used, so i got 50% free capacity. If I would be able to set the smoothing time to, for example, 8 hours instead of 24, so that the used capacity is split to 8 hours, I could use the available capacity much more efficient then I can do it right now.

[PaulCH]

I absolutely agree with the above, but would go just a bit further and say that I'd like to see 'smart' smoothing. Specifically, where there is spare capacity, I would like to utilise that to speed up smoothing. For example: set a guardrail of e.g. 50% of capacity allocated for background processes, reserving 50% for interactive. When less than 50% of capacity is being used for background processes, spare capacity is instead used to speed up the smoothing time frame for processes that have already been completed and smoothed. So if there's spare capacity, background processes could be paid off in less than 24 hrs (and overall capacity is used more efficiently).