In a data center, a system administrator is tasked with optimizing the performance of a server that runs multiple virtual machines (VMs). The server is equipped with a multi-core CPU that supports simultaneous multithreading (SMT). If the CPU has 8 physical cores and each core can handle 2 threads simultaneously, what is the maximum number of threads that can be executed concurrently? Additionally, if the server is running a workload that requires 50% of the CPU\'s total processing power, how many threads are effectively utilized during peak performance?