- Introduction
- 1: Agree on a Common Definition of Capacity Planning
- 2: Select a Capacity Planning Process Owner
- 3: Identify Key Resources To Be Measured
- 4: Measure the Current Utilizations of the Resources
- 5: Compare Current Utilizations to Maximum Capacities
- 6: Collect Meaningful Workload Forecasts from Representative Users
- 7: Transform Forecasts into Resource Requirements
- 8: Map Requirements Onto Existing Utilizations
- 9: Predict When the Shop Will Be Out of Capacity
- 10: Update Forecasts and Utilizations
- Harris Kern's Enterprise Computing Institute
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1: Agree on a Common Definition of Capacity Planning
Capacity planning means different things to different people. Agreeing on a common, formal definition of the process is key to designing and implementing an effective capacity planning program. Here's an example of such a definition:
A process to predict the types, quantities, and timing of critical resource capacities that are needed within an infrastructure to meet accurately forecasted workloads.
NOTE
Be careful to distinguish capacity planning, which is a long-range, strategically oriented process, from capacity management, which tends to be a short-term, tactically oriented activity.
A person's perspective plays a key role in capacity planning. For example, a server operating at 60% capacity may be great news to a performance specialist who is trying to optimally tune response times. But to an IT financial analyst trying to optimize resources from a cost standpoint, this may be disturbing news of unused resources and wasted costs. A formal, common definition of capacity planning can help to explain and bridge these two perspectives.