Browse > Home / White Papers / Effective Capacity Planning in an ITIL World

Effective Capacity Planning in an ITIL World


(click on the link or right-click and choose ’save as’ for the PDF)

Effective Capacity Planning in an ITIL World.
An itSM Solutions® LLC Success-Based White Paper™

By Hank Marquis

This paper provides executives with Information Technology responsibilities a 90-day roadmap to success for effective capacity planning. Based on the best practices of the IT Infrastructure Library™ (ITIL®) but with a practical workable approach, the author shows how to improve customer satisfaction, reduce negative business impact, and lower costs without making large investments.

Executive Summary

A key requirement for any IT service delivery organization, public or private, is to ensure the infrastructure has adequate capacity to meet the evolving demands of the business.

Many IT executives think “upgrade” with then hear “capacity” — relating “a capacity plan” to “a spending plan.” However, using the methods described in this paper, you can not only identify, justify and meet business needs for capacity, but also reduce costs — without making new investments in people or products.

To manage capacity effectively requires a model to understand business consumption of IT Services as well as all the components that make up an IT Service. This paper introduces Peak Hour Load as one metric for this purpose.

Peak Hour Load provides a method for understanding business consumption of IT resources (also known as “load”) as well as providing a basis for predicting future load (also known as “demand.”)

The ability to predict future business demand is critical to effective capacity planning. This paper introduces the concept of Projected Saturation as a means to understand future requirements and plan accordingly for cost effective capacity planning.

Capacity planning is not always about spending money; and in fact, this paper introduces several methods and techniques that can reduce costs while maintaining customer satisfaction.

In summary, this paper provides a practical and easy to understand guide to effective capacity

CRM Help Desk Software