Adapt your capacity process to support Cloud solutions

Potentially there are a large number of areas within a “standard” capacity process that need to be adapted to support Cloud solutions, but based on experience I believe the following topics represent the key areas.

• Process interfaces
• Tooling and monitoring
• Scope and Maturity

To effectively manage the capacity of “The Cloud” stronger or at least redefined process interfaces will be required.  Closer links with financial processes will be key to understanding the costs associated with the various options Public, Private, Hybrid etc and using this information to assess which will best meet the needs of the business.  The determination of these costs and sizing the environment correctly will be critical in ensuring that using “The Cloud” actually pays. 

Strong configuration and change processes will also be essential in tracking all elements of a service with the focus moving away from the component level information and towards the interconnectivity between these components.  Finally I believe the relationship with Service Level management will require increased visibility when transitioning to the cloud, both from the perspective of managing the customer expectations and in capturing and documenting key service level performance metrics.  A keen insight into both the service architecture and which Cloud implementation is best suited will be essential in ensuring the required service levels are continually met during and after any transition.  As the popularity of public clouds expands, demand management as providers over commit resource to drive down costs and the available Capacity will become far more of an issue and careful stewardship of the performance targets will be a valuable asset.

The tooling and monitoring requirements will need to be re-evaluated prior to moving to a Cloud implementation  as the traditional capacity focus at the component level will become less important,  with an aggregated service view being key to understanding the service performance and usage.  When selecting a tool try to ensure that it will monitor across the Enterprise and have the flexibility to import a wide variety of data sources.  These information sources can then be used to provide a unified reporting portal to assist in capacity monitoring and planning for the Cloud, service and underlying components.  In a cloud implementation rather than the components being the first bottleneck it is likely the network will be the focal point for initial performance monitoring and planning; more specifically the network links between your organisation and the cloud provider.

Ultimately I believe the biggest changes for the capacity management process will be the perceived scope of the process and the required maturity.  In my experience as a consultant working for a number of large scale organisations the majority will have a detailed understanding of the component level side of the business i.e. the servers, a degree of knowledge at the service level, but little knowledge of the business and financial aspects.  To successfully manage a Cloud implementation that meets the required service levels and provide actual financial savings, the process will need to cover all aspects of both the service and the underlying infrastructure, including networks and potentially facilities.

A detailed understanding of the business needs and drivers and again how these will relate to services and infrastructure is essential in a Cloud environment and to a lesser degree any large scale virtualization project.
Achieving this level of maturity and integration presents a considerable challenge for a capacity management team, but if achieved will benefit both the business and raise the profile of capacity management and ITIL immeasurably.

Come along to our free webinar on ‘Cloud Computing and Capacity Management’ this Thursday http://www.metron-athene.com/training/webinars/webinar_summaries.html 

Rob Ford

Consultant