---
title: "Reclaiming Idle Infrastructure: Announcing 5-Spot, a Cloud-Native Machine Scheduler"
description: At the first Open Source in Finance Forum (OSFF) Toronto, the FINOS community announced a major expansion of its High-Performance Computing (HPC) portfolio. Today, we are thrilled to spotlight 5-Spot, a cloud-native Kubernetes controller recently contributed by RBC Capital Markets.
---

[Community Blog](https://www.finos.org/blog)

# [Reclaiming Idle Infrastructure: Announcing 5-Spot, a Cloud-Native Machine Scheduler](https://www.finos.org/blog/announcing-5-spot-cloud-native-machine-scheduler)

 Written by [FINOS Team](https://www.finos.org/blog/author/finos-team) | 4/24/26 7:11 PM

At the first **Open Source in Finance Forum (OSFF) Toronto**, the FINOS community announced a major expansion of its High-Performance Computing (HPC) portfolio. Today, we are thrilled to spotlight **5-Spot**, a cloud-native Kubernetes controller recently contributed by **RBC Capital Markets**.

## **Solving the Idle Infrastructure Challenge**

Financial institutions operate some of the world's largest compute estates, however, these environments face a staggering utilization gap: while servers may reach **70% utilization** during market hours, that number often plummets to just **10% overnight**.

Historically, this "stranded capacity" has been a significant drain on Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) and energy, with firms paying for power and cooling on hardware that sits idle for eight hours a night. **5-Spot** addresses this by reclaiming that "night shift" compute and returning it to the cluster for productive use.

## **What is 5-Spot?**

5-Spot is a cloud-native Kubernetes controller designed to bring the economics of cloud "spot" or preemptible instances to on-premises physical infrastructure. It allows platform teams to reclaim idle hardware by adding and removing machines from clusters on a strictly defined schedule.

Built as a Kubernetes operator, it leverages **Cluster API (CAPI)** to standardize how machines are provisioned and joined to clusters. By using a single \`ScheduledMachine\` Custom Resource Definition (CRD), hardware owners can specify exactly when their nodes should join the cluster, down to the day of the week, hour, and timezone.

## **Key Features**

- **Deterministic Lifecycle Management:** The controller handles the entire lifecycle through well-defined phases: **Pending → Scheduled → Active → Removing → Inactive**.
- **Graceful Draining:** To protect critical workloads, 5-Spot automates node draining and sends graceful shutdown signals before a machine is removed at the end of its scheduled window.
- **Safety & Kill Switches:** Hardware owners retain ultimate control through an immediate "kill switch," allowing them to reclaim their hardware instantly for urgent market events.
- **Confidential Computing:** 5-Spot integrates with **Kata Containers** and **Confidential Containers (CoCo)**, using TPM-enabled hardware to ensure guest workloads are completely isolated and encrypted from the host server.

## **Use Cases**

- **Cost Optimization:** Run compute-intensive batch jobs (like VaR or CVA simulations) on idle on-prem hardware before bursting out to more expensive cloud resources.
- **Sustainability:** Drastically improve energy efficiency by maximizing the utilization of already-powered-on hardware.
- **Ephemeral Environments:** Automatically provision and tear down staging or testing clusters on a recurring schedule.

## **Fun Fact**

As the creators brainstormed ideas for a project name, the phrase “spot me five bucks” came up and the name stuck. It’s a fitting way to describe borrowing capacity, even if the returns can be anything but small.

## **Get Involved!**

- **Explore the Code:** The **v0.1.0** release is available now at[github.com/finos/5-spot](https://github.com/finos/5-spot)
- **Get Started:** Explore the documentation at[5spot.finos.org](https://5spot.finos.org/).
- **Connect with the Team:** Join the **#5-spot** channel on the[FINOS Slack](https://finos.org/slack) or reach out to the project maintainers and community at [5-spot@lists.finos.org](mailto:5-spot@lists.finos.org).
- **Contribute:** Check out our[open issues](https://www.google.com/search?q=https://github.com/finos/5-spot/issues) and[contributing guide](https://github.com/finos/5-spot/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md).

 

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[View full post](https://www.finos.org/blog/announcing-5-spot-cloud-native-machine-scheduler)

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