Disclosed are systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for infrastructure aware adaptive resource allocation. A resource manager can receive a request to allocate a first container instance in a network. The resource manager can determine a set of candidate computing nodes in the network that are capable of hosting the first container instance and request, from an infrastructure monitor that received infrastructure data from the network, health metrics for the set of candidate computing nodes. The resource manager can select, based on the health metrics for the set of candidate computing nodes, an optimal computing node to host the first container instance, and allocate the first container instance on the optimal computing node.