Upcoming: Holiday-Aware Scheduling | The Smart Scaler News

We’re excited to give you a sneak peek at one of our most requested features: Holiday-Aware Scheduling.

Note: This post is a preview of an upcoming feature. It will be officially released in the coming weeks.

The Problem with Holidays

Every organisation knows that usage patterns change during public holidays. But implementing holiday-aware scaling is surprisingly complex:

Different countries have different holidays
Some holidays are fixed dates, others move (like Easter)
Multi-national organisations need to handle multiple calendars
Company-specific closures add another layer

Most organisations end up with one of two approaches:

Ignore holidays entirely — Keep full capacity running, waste money
Manual intervention — Remember to adjust scaling before each holiday, hope nothing gets forgotten

Neither approach is ideal.

Introducing Holiday-Aware Scheduling

Our new feature solves this problem automatically. Here’s how it works:

Pre-Loaded Holiday Calendars

The Smart Scaler now includes public holiday calendars for over 50 countries, including:

United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland)
United States (Federal and state-specific)
European Union countries
Australia (Federal and state-specific)
Canada (Federal and provincial)
And many more…

Smart Regional Assignment

Assign holiday calendars to specific host pools based on your user base:

Host Pool: UK-Finance-Team
Region: United Kingdom (England)
→ Automatically scales down for UK bank holidays

Host Pool: US-Sales-Team  
Region: United States (California)
→ Automatically scales down for US Federal holidays + CA state holidays

Custom Date Support

Add your own dates for company-specific events:

Annual shutdown periods (Christmas/New Year)
Company-wide events
Training days
Any other non-standard closures

Intelligent Overlap Handling

For organisations spanning multiple regions, we handle the complexity:

Global services team? Apply the union of all relevant calendars
Regional teams? Apply location-specific calendars
Hybrid approach? Mix and match as needed

Preview: The Interface

Here’s a preview of how you’ll configure holiday scheduling:

Step 1: Select Your Region

Choose the primary region for your host pool. We’ll automatically suggest the relevant holiday calendar.

Step 2: Review Upcoming Holidays

See a list of upcoming holidays that will affect your scaling. Modify the behaviour for specific holidays if needed.

Step 3: Set Scaling Behaviour

Choose how aggressively to scale down:

Minimal — Scale to emergency-only capacity (10% of normal)
Reduced — Scale to weekend-like capacity (30% of normal)
Standard — Apply normal weekend rules
No change — Keep normal weekday scaling

Step 4: Add Custom Dates

Add any company-specific dates. These integrate seamlessly with the public holiday calendar.

Expected Savings

Based on our analysis, holiday-aware scheduling provides:

5-10% additional cost savings beyond standard scaling
Zero manual intervention required
Better user experience — no unexpected capacity issues when employees do work holidays

For a typical 100-host deployment, this translates to £5,000-£10,000 additional annual savings.

Timeline

We’re currently in beta testing with selected customers. Expected general availability:

Beta: Now (contact us to join)
General Availability: January 2026

Early Access

Want to be among the first to try holiday-aware scheduling? We’re looking for beta testers who:

Have multi-regional AVD deployments
Currently struggle with holiday scaling
Are willing to provide feedback

Stay tuned for the official release announcement. In the meantime, follow us on Twitter for updates.