One embodiment provides an apparatus. The apparatus includes ranker logic. The ranker logic is to rank each of a plurality of compute nodes in a data center based, at least in part, on a respective node score. Each node score is determined based, at least in part, on a utilization (U), a saturation parameter (S) and a capacity factor (Ci). The capacity factor is determined based, at least in part, on a sold capacity (Cs) related to the compute node. The ranker logic is further to select one compute node with a highest node score for placement of a received workload.