Optimized placement of virtual machines in a cloud environment is based on factors that include processor-memory affinity. A smart migration mechanism (SMM) predicts an optimization score for multiple permutations of placing virtual machines on a target system to create an optimal move list. The optimization score is a theoretical score calculated using dynamic platform optimization (DPO). The SMM may allow the user to set initial parameters and change the parameters to create potential changes lists. The move lists are ranked to allow the user to select the optimal change list to provide the best affinity, quickest fulfillment of requirements and least disruption for a given set of parameters.