The present invention proactively identifies hotspots in a cloud computing environment through cloud resource usage models that use workload parameters as inputs. In some embodiments the cloud resource usage models are based upon performance data from cloud resources and time series based workload trend models. Hotspots may occur and can be detected at any layer of the cloud computing environment, including the server, storage, and network level. In a typical embodiment, parameters for a workload are identified in the cloud computing environment and inputted into a cloud resource usage model. The model is run with the inputted workload parameters to identify potential hotspots, and resources are then provisioned for the workload so as to avoid these hotspots.