How best Capacity Planning can be done in an IT Organization
Srinivasa Rao Kosiganti, Riann Singh, Tech Mahindra · 2013
It is very common for an IT Organization to manage system performance in a reactionary fashion, analyzing, and correcting performance problems as users report them. When problems occur, hopefully system administrators have tools necessary to quick analyze and remedy the situation. In a perfect world, administrators prepare in advance in order to avoid bottlenecks altogether, using capacity planning tools to predict in advance how servers would be configured to adequately handle future workloads. The goal of capacity planning is to provide satisfactory service levels to the users in a cost-effective manner. Obviously the end goal of capacity planning is a smooth and speedy experience for the users. Several factors can affect the user’s experience beside capacity. It’s possible to have plenty of capacity but a slow website nonetheless. Even though capacity is only one part of making the end-user experience fast, that experience is still one of the real-world metrics that we will want to measure and track in order make forecasts. This paper describes the best practices to follow for capacity planning.