The focus of IT infrastructure management has never been static for very long. Very early on, for the very expensive mainframe systems, the focus was exclusively on job management and control to assure the absolute highest utilization rates. The 'glass house' was surrounded by technicians, operations managers, JCL specialists, etc., whose time was counted as relatively cheap when compared to the investment in hardware. This continues to be true as Business Service Management - the ability of IT to understand and adapt its operations to meet and support business operations - expands its presence in the market.
Over time, styles of computing changed, the cost of processor time dropped as available capacities grew exponentially - to the extent that in many instances applications were designed to run on its own server. Keeping abreast of shifting cost equations, management attention moved from the hardware to software to applications performance.
For an extended period of time, server utilization in the neighborhood of 10% was considered quite acceptable. It became an accepted standard practice to over-provision infrastructure rather than risk running out of capacity when it mattered. Not surprisingly, capacity management and planning moved way down the scale of management focus.
Times changed. Rising prices, escalating demand for power and energy raised their cost along with increasingly global competition combined to apply enormous downward pressure on the cost of computing. Suddenly, cost sensitivity and infrastructure utilization levels became the new obsession.
Successful capacity management and forecasting resource utilization has moved to the forefront of operations management concerns. New architectures, the capability to virtualize every aspect of the IT infrastructure from platforms to services combine with complexity in implementation have resulted in an operations infrastructure that is a capacity management nightmare. Existing planning and forecasting methodologies and tools designed for much less complex and dynamic operations are inadequate to cope with the new operations environment.
New capacity management and forecasting solutions are needed which are easier to install, deploy and use. They must be automated to transparently scale and handle the complexity of dynamic operating environments that can expand to very large numbers. They must be flexible to respond and adapt to the infrastructure changes needed to support evolving business needs. They must be able to handle both virtual and physical infrastructure as well as both mainframe and distributed platforms.
Really powerful tools will include the capability to integrate input and learned data to forecast potential capacity problems sufficiently in advance to take action to avoid the problem. They will allow 'what if' modeling and evaluation of alternative scenarios to find the best way to resolve or avoid a problem. The solution will not require capacity management specialists to provide useful information but will have the flexibility to allow specialists to perform more accurate and precise analysis.
This only scratches the surface of some of the characteristics required for capacity management. The point here is that capacity management provides a key element to the implementation of BSM in today's enterprise. Planning, forecasting and management links directly to business needs. Properly done, benefits can be realized in cost reduction, improved margins, better and more effective utilization of assets, resources and capital. Both IT and business managers should be looking into this important management function.
Over time, styles of computing changed, the cost of processor time dropped as available capacities grew exponentially - to the extent that in many instances applications were designed to run on its own server. Keeping abreast of shifting cost equations, management attention moved from the hardware to software to applications performance.
For an extended period of time, server utilization in the neighborhood of 10% was considered quite acceptable. It became an accepted standard practice to over-provision infrastructure rather than risk running out of capacity when it mattered. Not surprisingly, capacity management and planning moved way down the scale of management focus.
Times changed. Rising prices, escalating demand for power and energy raised their cost along with increasingly global competition combined to apply enormous downward pressure on the cost of computing. Suddenly, cost sensitivity and infrastructure utilization levels became the new obsession.
Successful capacity management and forecasting resource utilization has moved to the forefront of operations management concerns. New architectures, the capability to virtualize every aspect of the IT infrastructure from platforms to services combine with complexity in implementation have resulted in an operations infrastructure that is a capacity management nightmare. Existing planning and forecasting methodologies and tools designed for much less complex and dynamic operations are inadequate to cope with the new operations environment.
New capacity management and forecasting solutions are needed which are easier to install, deploy and use. They must be automated to transparently scale and handle the complexity of dynamic operating environments that can expand to very large numbers. They must be flexible to respond and adapt to the infrastructure changes needed to support evolving business needs. They must be able to handle both virtual and physical infrastructure as well as both mainframe and distributed platforms.
Really powerful tools will include the capability to integrate input and learned data to forecast potential capacity problems sufficiently in advance to take action to avoid the problem. They will allow 'what if' modeling and evaluation of alternative scenarios to find the best way to resolve or avoid a problem. The solution will not require capacity management specialists to provide useful information but will have the flexibility to allow specialists to perform more accurate and precise analysis.
This only scratches the surface of some of the characteristics required for capacity management. The point here is that capacity management provides a key element to the implementation of BSM in today's enterprise. Planning, forecasting and management links directly to business needs. Properly done, benefits can be realized in cost reduction, improved margins, better and more effective utilization of assets, resources and capital. Both IT and business managers should be looking into this important management function.
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