Maturing your Capacity Management processes - Information and Governance ( 7 of 11 )

With the complexity of today’s modern IT environments and the multitude of delivery mechanisms available, it’s safe to say that organizations are swamped with data. 

The challenge for implementing capacity management is being able to distil this wealth of information into a useable form.  Rather than concentrate on specific platforms or metrics, I have found the following to be a useful guide for filtering information:

·         If implementing for the first time, follow the usual ITIL guidance of starting small and building up.  For capacity management this could be starting with a particular platform, service or application. 

·         Work with technical teams to understand which metrics are available for each of the platforms.  This is especially important when dealing with virtualized platforms as these tend to have various levels e.g. cluster, host, guest etc which are key for capacity planning

·         Work with the application and service support teams to determine all valid metrics and importantly how these can be correlated with the underlying infrastructure data

Remember, the more data captured, the more you need to store, manage and understand.  As well as the obvious capacity implications of storing more and more data, you are also increasing the likelihood of missing key alerts and data trends.

On Wednesday I’ll be looking at your most important asset, People. 

In the meantime don't forget to register for my webinar 'Capacity Management Maturity - Assessing & Improving' http://www.metron-athene.com/services/webinars/index.html

Jamie Baker

Principal Consultant