capacity planning issues_a dynamic situation_final

8/12/2019 Capacity Planning Issues_A Dynamic Situation_Final

1/40

Capacity Planning Issues - a dynamic situation : Case Study

Industry-FTT Data Center, Mumbai

L.N. Welingkars Institute of Management, Development & ResearchYear of Submission: September, 2013

1


2/40

You cannot afford to assume that the data center has unlimited capacity; this iseven more true for the internal cloud

Capacity management ensures IT capacity co st effect ively meets business

requirements. A capacity management process will reduce infrastructure waste whileproviding a framework for future acquisitions planning and accurate cost accounting.

2

This research is designed for:

CIOs or IT directors

IT infrastructure / data centermanagers

Internal utility infrastructure / cloudevangelists

This research will provide you with:

An understanding of why the lost art of

capacity management is more critical thanever in consolidated proto-cloudinfrastructures.

A process and workbook for cataloging andassessing current capacity in light of theneeds of the business.

A process checklist for capacitymanagement with links to relevantadditional resources and tools at Info-Tech.

A gas gauge model for capacity planningbased on reserve capacity andmaintenance of service.Capacity management and service tiers have apositive correlation with consolidation success.

.15

.09

.21 *

.36 *

Capacity Planning

Cost Accounting

Capacity Mgmt

Service Tiers


3/40

Executive Summary

Manage capacity b y service tiers for cos t eff ic iency.Not all services require the same capacity. Examinevariable capacity costs for each tier to see how savings might be realized without compromising service levels.

Take a gas gauge approach to c apacity planning. Once pools of reserve capacity are established, futurecapacity acquisitions are based on service maintenance rather than application addition.

Capacity management is a process, not a product. Look to system management and internal cloudmanagement tools with an eye to how they might automate your capacity management practice.

3

Understand

Assess

Plan/Prepare

Capacity m anagement is a cri t ical step between simple server consolidation/virtualization and creating the

internal infrastructure-as-a-service cloud that enterprises are currently focused on building. In an internal private cloud the organization pays for everything. Unlike an external public cloud, wherecapacity is open-ended, the organization has to pay for total capacity-- not just capacity that is being used rightnow.

Virtual izat ion does n ot create capacity or m ake capacity less expensive.Server virtualization is an importantenabler of internal andexternal cloud computing, but it alone does not make a cost effective cloud service.

Turn data center management o utside-in. Cloud computing is associated with delivering IT as a service.Assessing the infrastructure for capacity management and planning starts with the business and ends with amodel for total cost to serve and capacity management across service tiers.

Use Info -Techs Capacity Planning Data Collect ion & Tiering Wor kboo k to assess infrastructure based ondependencies, interdependencies, criticality, and business priority.
http://www.infotech.com/research/it-capacity-planning-data-collection-tiering-workbookhttp://www.infotech.com/research/it-capacity-planning-data-collection-tiering-workbook


4/40

Understand

This section will help you: Understand why capacity

management is a critical activitybetween consolidation andinternal cloud.

Put virtualization in its properplace as a tactical enabler,rather than a managementstrategy.

See how capacity managementprepares the infrastructure for acloudy future, and aids inongoing consolidation andvirtualization.

Section in Brief

1

3

2Assess

Plan/Prepare

4


5/40

Focus on capacity management to optimize cost effectiveness & service, bothnow and for an increasingly cloudy future

An internal cloud is infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) delivered frominternal IT resources. Consolidation andvirtualization play a role in building an internalcloud, just as they do in external IaaS in a publiccloud service (e.g. Amazon Web Services).

Capacity management is im portant

because

virtualization does not create capacity, nor doesit automatically make all capacity cost-measurableand cost-effective. A capacity management strategywill enable a move from infrastructure as assetmanagement to infrastructure as servicemanagement.

Benefi ts wil l include:

The capability to document current capacity.

The ability to plan capacity in advance.

The ability to estimate the impact of new appsand modifications.

Cost savings through elimination of overprovisioning capacity, and through plannedspending rather than reactive spending.

Service and spending optimized to matchbusiness needs.

5

N= 123

Most IT departments engaged in consolidation and virtualization are focused oninternal cloud development first. A third (33%) will focus onlyon the internalcloud.

43%

33%

12%

12%Focus on the internalcloud before external

Implementing onlyinternal cloudsolutions

Focus on the externalcloud before internal

Implementing onlyexternal cloudsolutions

76 %focusing

oninternalcloud

External public clouds will play a role in the future of corporate IT, but right now most IT departmentsare focusing on developing the internal cloud.

Interest in theexternal cloudremains strong butimplementation isin early days. Mostare looking to theexternal clouds

role becomingmore important 3-5 years from now.

External cloud in three to five years.


6/40

It is recommended for capacity management (infrastructure analysis &planning) to optimize service tiers

Capacity management practices lead to greater success in infrastructure consolidation/virtualizationprojects.

Having developed service tiers in infrastructure was the strongest predictor of overall success inconsolidation.

A capacity management process, such as inventorying resources annually, was also a predictor ofsuccess, especially in managing virtual server sprawl, security assurance, and business continuity.

Cost accounting and capacity planning were not predictors of current success. However, as we shallsee, efficient capacity planning and cost accounting are not direct inputs, but outcomes of capacitymanagement.

6

Correlation with Success in Consolidation/Virtualization Projects

Note: * = correlation is significant. N = 88.Source:

.15

.09

.21 *

.36 *

Capacity PlanningCost Accounting

Capacity Management

Service Tiers

Success was defined as:

Reduced capital and facilitycosts.

Reduced man-hours spenton management ofinfrastructure.

Increased uptime and

business continuity. Reduced virtual server

sprawl. Reduced security concerns.


7/40

Where this solution set fits: Capacity management is a critical part of the largerpicture of building the internal cloud

This set is one of a series dedicated to building converged utility infrastructure (see below right). All these sets reference Info-Techs layer cake model of consolidation (right) and our three laws of utility/cloud investment (below left).

7

1

Alignment is

Software

2

Hardware is

Capacity

3

Management is

a Differentiator

Three Laws of Cloud

Infrastructure Investment

How do yousl ice th is cake?

Related sets that address aspects of building an internal cloud

Build a Server Acquisition

Strategy for the Internal

Cloud

Build an Optimized

Infrastructure-as-a-

Service Internal Cloud

Mitigate Costs &

Maximize Value with a

Consolidated Network

Storage Strategy

Craft a Converged Data

Center Network Strategy

Evaluate a Backup

Architecture Strategy

Select a Consolidated

Storage Platform

A management process that starts with businessneeds, works through capacity optimization, and endswith a plan for tiered service pooling adheres with Info-Techs three laws because it relates capacity

management directly with servicing the needs of thebusiness.

Info-Techs layer cake model for the internal cloudshows how infrastructure layers and virtualization allcontribute to service, but an additional element isefficient management of capacity across the layers.

For more detail on the three lawsand how they relate to a capacityplanning process see slide 18.
http://www.infotech.com/research/ss/build-a-server-acquisition-strategy-for-the-internal-cloudhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/build-a-server-acquisition-strategy-for-the-internal-cloudhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/build-a-server-acquisition-strategy-for-the-internal-cloudhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/beyond-consolidation-build-an-optimized-infrastructure-as-a-service-internal-cloudhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/beyond-consolidation-build-an-optimized-infrastructure-as-a-service-internal-cloudhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/beyond-consolidation-build-an-optimized-infrastructure-as-a-service-internal-cloudhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/construct-a-storage-consolidation-strategyhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/construct-a-storage-consolidation-strategyhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/construct-a-storage-consolidation-strategyhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/construct-a-storage-consolidation-strategyhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/craft-a-converged-data-center-networking-strategyhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/craft-a-converged-data-center-networking-strategyhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/it-evaluate-a-backup-architecture-strategyhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/it-evaluate-a-backup-architecture-strategyhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/select-a-solid-foundation-for-the-consolidated-infrastructurehttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/select-a-solid-foundation-for-the-consolidated-infrastructurehttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/select-a-solid-foundation-for-the-consolidated-infrastructurehttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/select-a-solid-foundation-for-the-consolidated-infrastructurehttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/it-evaluate-a-backup-architecture-strategyhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/it-evaluate-a-backup-architecture-strategyhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/craft-a-converged-data-center-networking-strategyhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/craft-a-converged-data-center-networking-strategyhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/construct-a-storage-consolidation-strategyhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/construct-a-storage-consolidation-strategyhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/construct-a-storage-consolidation-strategyhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/construct-a-storage-consolidation-strategyhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/beyond-consolidation-build-an-optimized-infrastructure-as-a-service-internal-cloudhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/beyond-consolidation-build-an-optimized-infrastructure-as-a-service-internal-cloudhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/beyond-consolidation-build-an-optimized-infrastructure-as-a-service-internal-cloudhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/beyond-consolidation-build-an-optimized-infrastructure-as-a-service-internal-cloudhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/beyond-consolidation-build-an-optimized-infrastructure-as-a-service-internal-cloudhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/beyond-consolidation-build-an-optimized-infrastructure-as-a-service-internal-cloudhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/beyond-consolidation-build-an-optimized-infrastructure-as-a-service-internal-cloudhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/beyond-consolidation-build-an-optimized-infrastructure-as-a-service-internal-cloudhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/build-a-server-acquisition-strategy-for-the-internal-cloudhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/build-a-server-acquisition-strategy-for-the-internal-cloudhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/build-a-server-acquisition-strategy-for-the-internal-cloud


8/40

Compare & contrast the cloudsfor the internal cloud, your enterprise pays foreverything and shoulders all the risk

The internal and external clouds are both abstracted environmentswhere applications are provisioned with available and scalablecompute capacity.

Abstracted compute resources (processor cycles, memory, storage)are typically derived from aggregated and virtualized hardware.

Compute resources are presented to the customer as a service.Both models are highly agile and responsive to changing businessdemands.

8

Infrastructure is owned by an externalthird

party. They are responsible for managingcapacity and mitigating risk.

Application workloads are provisioned bythese abstracted resources which areelastic (they scale up with need).

Customersshare access to theseresources (typically via the Internet) in amulti-tenant environment and pay only forwhat they use.

External Public

Compute Cloud

VS.

Infrastructure is entirely owned by the

enterprise and managed by IT. Application workloads are provisioned by

resources that can also be elastic, butscaling is limited by available capacity.

The businessthe sole customer ofinternal IT infrastructurepays for thewhole cloud regardless of how much is

used.

Internal Private

Compute Cloud

Key

Differences

Similarities


9/40

It hurts to be alonetotal ownership of limited capacity imposes anexpensive box that can be invisible to the business

Unused capacity costs are ongoing overhead for theinternal cloud.

In an internal Infrastructure as a Service cloud, the enterprisepays for all capacity, not just a share of a larger third-party pool.

Justifying the IT spend for total capacity is difficult when thebusiness is used to a 1 to 1 relationship between an applicationand a hardware purchase.

Risk mitigation is a significant component of totalcost.

In the external cloud, the third party provider is responsible forrisk mitigation of the capacity it rents (availability, recoverability,security).

In the internal cloud, IT bears this responsibility. Significant costdrivers are the hardware and data redundancy that are neededto mitigate risk.

9

When the capacity limits are reached, physical infrastructure needs to be acquired ad hoc.

The public cloud is open ended. The third-party provider maintains a practically unlimited pool of capacity that isavailable on demand. In the private cloud, capacity is limited.

Concern about hitting the wall of internal capacity limits leads to over provisioning.Acquiring more capacity than isneeded means wasted spending and maintenance time.


10/40

Draw a clear line from business need through software & hardware needs -transparency is not the same as invisibility

The goal of capacity management is to optimizeperformance and efficiency of the current

infrastructure, to plan for future capacityrequirements, and to justify the financialinvestment in the infrastructure.

The classic steps in capacity management are:

Analyze current capacityfind out how appsare currently provisioned and what theperformance and availability requirementsare for each one.

Optimize the infrastructure to ensure themost efficient use of existing capacity.

Analyze the impact of new or updated appson capacity.

Analyze demand to model servicerequirements of the infrastructure and predictfuture growth in demand.

Develop a capacity plan that relates futuregrowth in capacity to maintenance of servicelevels.

These steps will guide our recommendations insection 3 of this report.

10

Capacity Management vs. Planning

One Leads to the Other

Capacity management is a tactical activityfocused on the present. It enables cost

effective provisioning of IT services by helpingorganizations match their IT resources to

business demands.

Capacity plannin g is a strategic activityfocused on the future. It is the process

determining the amount of hardware resources

that will be required to deliver the appropriatelevel of service for the defined workload at the

least cost.


11/40

Rediscover the lost art of capacity management & planning after decades of inefficientdistributed processing

Capacity management in IT matured in the mainframeenvironment, where resources were costly and it tookconsiderabletime to upgrade. Applications needed tobe provisioned from a share of the centrally

maintained and expensive compute resource.

Resource partitions needed to be rigidly cost justifiedand cost managed because of the high cost of thetotal capacity. Expanding capacity in this environmentwas expensive andtime consuming.

11

As data centers transitioned to a distributedenvironment supported by inexpensive UNIX, Linuxand Windows servers, a brute force approach toprovisioning became the norm. Cheap industrystandard servers could be assigned to provisionspecific new or expanding applications or services.

Capacity management and planning skills atrophied incompanies accustomed to this throw some more

hardware at it approach. Unregulated distributing

processing bred increased complexity in unregulatedserver sprawl, and waste in poorly utilized silos ofprocessing and storage.

That was then This is now


12/40

Server virtualization does not equal cloudthe internal cloud is the end of a journey thatbegins with server CAPEX savings

Organizations typically embark on servervirtualization to realize immediate capital savingsfrom reduced server hardware footprint, throughconsolidation.

However, as more of the server infrastructure isvirtualized, further benefitssuch asimprovements in provisioning agility and service

availabilitybegin to emerge.

A managed internal cloud is the end of this journeythat begins with a simple need to save money onserver acquisition.

To realize these benefits, management capabilityof both the underlying capacity as well as thevirtualized abstraction layer is critical.

12

Server virtualization mitigates waste of distributed servers through better resource utilization and processagility, but virtualization is an enabling tactic, not an infrastructure model.

The internal cloud is not a product that will be delivered out of a box. It will be developed over time,enabled by consolidation, standardization, virtualization, and capacity management that focuses onservice delivery to the business.

Utility Infrastructure

(Internal Cloud)

Application

Lifecycle

PerformanceMonitoring

Automation

Metering(Chargeback)

Provisioning

LoadBalancing

Availability

Recovery

P2VCandidateIdentification

Management

ConsolidatePercentV

irtualized

Time (relative to size and hardware refresh rate)

0%

100%


13/40

13

Server CAPEX reduction is thegreatest benefit of consolidationthrough virtualization.

Virtualization does not lead directly tosavings in facility, storage, or networkcosts.

Organizations that were more than50% virtualized generally agreed thatall types of management took fewerman-hours due to consolidation.

However, increased virtualization hadthe biggest impact on servermanagement. Organizations thatwere more virtualized spent

significantly fewer man-hours onserver instance management.

Careful management planning for theentire data center will optimize facilitycosts, storage costs, network costs,and management complexity.

Agreement with costs have been reduced

by consolidation

Averages above the dotted line indicateagreement that costs have been reduced. Thedifference between low and high virtualizationis only significant for server cost reduction.

Agreement with the number of

hours spent has been reduced

Averages above the dotted line indicateagreement that man-hours have beenreduced. The difference between lowand high virtualization is only significantfor server instances.

Saving time and money on servers only increases as consolidation progresses. However, other layers of theinfrastructure do not see the same success. Similarly, management benefits are mainly in server instances.

What this means

Wrap up consolidation efforts and focus on capacity

management for the entire infrastructure

NetworkStorageFacilityServer

> 50%< 50%

Infrastructure

Costs

Physical

Infrastructure

Server

Instances

Servers Virtualized


14/40

Start capacity management nowto optimize currentinfrastructure andboost success in ongoing consolidation

2011 is the year that most companies doing consolidation will cross the line to having more than 50% of their infrastructure virtualized. Manyhave already crossed that line.

14

0

10

2030

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

% Virt Now % Virt 18Months

% Virt 3Years

Current & Projected Virtualization

Server Virtualization by Company Size

What this means

On the journey from tactical server consolidation tointernal cloud management, enterprises are at apoint where management is going to matter morethan infrastructure effectiveness. With a majority ofworkloads virtualized, virtual infrastructure isincreasingly core infrastructure.

Enterprises have likely moved beyond the lowhanging fruit of server consolidation (such as test,dev, and non-critical servers) to virtualizing moremission critical and resource demanding workloads.

However, a significant proportion of the workloadswill remain un-virtualized for immediate future.Treating infrastructure as a service management

model will need to account for allserver workloads.

Capacity management correlates with consolidationand virtualization success. In addition to orientingtoward IT as a service, capacity management willhelp deal with an increasingly virtualizedconsolidated infrastructure.

42%

50%

52%

Small (0-250)Medium (250-1000)

Large (1000+)


15/40

Avoid virtual server sprawl & boost success in areas such as business

continuity & security with capacity management

Virtual server sprawl happens when the business losessight of infrastructure requirements and costs of running avirtual machine. Fast and easy server deploymentbecomes confused with cheap server deployment.

Negative impact of virtual server sprawl includes:

Wasted capacity.Resource-consuming virtual

machines are running that nobody is using oraccountable for. Capacity waste is especially seen instorage, where high end SAN space is being eaten bymultiple virtual machine instances.

Performance degradation.As more virtual machinesare added to the system, the performance of all virtualmachines degrades as more workloads contend for

the same resources.

Unplanned capacity additions.As virtual sprawlincreases and available resources decrease, there isdemand to add more physical capacity.

Having a capacity management plan significantly reducesconcerns about virtual sprawl.

15

Sprawl is alive and well in our organization.Virtualization has allowed application and businessteams to buy additional dev/test/staging environmentswhere they haven't been able to afford them before.They're using the same budgets they had before,they're just buying more servers with them now.

Without an idea of the cost and appropriate provisioning of capacity, the benefits from reducing thecomplexity of physical server management is eradicated by virtual sprawl.

.15.16

.10

.28

.24.24

N = 88. Source: .

Significant correlationwith capacitymanagement


16/40

T i f t t t t id i k f b i d th h


17/40

Turn infrastructure management outside-inwork from business needs throughapp requirements to total capacity requirements

The data center is traditionally seen as a roomfull of assetsservers, networks, and storagearrays, that need to be fed and cared for (withappropriate power, cooling and configurationmanagement).

A capacity management view of the datacenter starts outside, with the servicerequirements of the customer, then worksthrough all of infrastructure assets needed todeliver expected service levels.

The total cost of application, storage, server,network, and facilities is the total cost of theservice being rendered to the business. Thisis the total cost to serve or the total cost of all

capacity.

Finally, a capacity management strategy looksat how total cost of capacity can be mitigated.The key question is how much capacity isgood enough to maintain service now and inthe immediate future.

17

Process Map for a Developing a Capacity Plan

Think like a service provider rather than an asset manager if you are going to offerinfrastructure-as-a-service from a utility infrastructure or internal cloud.


18/40


19/40

Determine service level requirements based on business need

19

Criticality

Importance andtolerance for

downtime

PerformanceMaximumcomputing

needed

Growth

Long-termplanning

+

+

The current capacity requirements(CPUs, network connections, I/0channels) that the app needs to performat a level in line with user expectations.

Base level performance requirement;what is the worst acceptable responsetime or throughput?

What this includes

Expected growth in demand from theapp or service over the next three years.

Accounts for uncertainty.

What this includes

Current importance of the app or serviceto the business.

Impact to the business of loss of serviceor poor performance.

What this includes

Original configuration requirements fromapp deployment.

Performance testing and appperformance monitoring

Physical to virtual machine (P2V)migration planning tools.

Where to get it

Needs assessment for disaster recoveryand business continuity planning.

Business impact analysis (BIA) fordisaster recovery.

Where to get it

Predicted growth in business can helppredict growth in transactionalprocesses

Monitor historical utilization to build aprojection of future utilization

Where to get it

Optimal performance requirements +criticality to the business +future growth potential=total service requirements.


20/40


21/40

Seek balance in provisioningService is a function of adequate capacity foroperation, growth, and redundancy

21

Capacityin Use

StandbyCapacity

RedundantCapacity

TotalCapacity

Goodenoughperformance

Scenario one:

Need is greater than available capacity

Scenario two:

Redundant capacity is less than adequate

CurrentNeed

FutureNeed

Result:Performance is good enough and availableenough right now, but when need expands, service willsuffer due to inadequate capacity.

Capacityin Use

StandbyCapacity

RedundantCapacity

TotalCapacity

Goodenoughperform

ance

CurrentNeed

FutureNeed

Result:Performance is adequate now and in the future;however, lack of redundant capacity threatensavailability. SLA availability guarantees will not be met.


22/40

f


23/40

23

Establish a systems management team to gather baseline information oncurrent capacity and to develop a capacity plan

Capacity assessment requires the combined input of theprofessionals who manage each layer of the infrastructure ,

because all layers of the infrastructure contribute to servicelevels.

Consolidation of infrastructure is not just consolidation of physicalboxes and data, but also consolidation of skills and personnel.

Establish a systems management team with representation fromall the individual technology silos to work together. Train them inadvance to use any new tools specific to a consolidatedenvironment.

Head the team with a sponsor who has control over every aspectof IT, and who has influence and the HR skills necessary tomanage a diverse team.

Were transitioning the staff to a different methodology thats

about planning for strategic growth. I sent my staff for training30 days before we got the first new server in, because the

challenges and complications with new tools are pretty huge.But once [the team] has gotten there, the world is wonderful forus. The server guys are saying this is great stuff! because

theyre able to very quickly meet demand increasing size,upgrading an appwhatever it is, they can meet thosedemands a lot more efficiently.

-- Assistant director of MISDocument the systems management team in the datacollection plan. Use Info-Techs Capacity PlanningData Collection & Tiering Workbookto begin planning.
http://www.infotech.com/research/it-capacity-planning-data-collection-tiering-workbookhttp://www.infotech.com/research/it-capacity-planning-data-collection-tiering-workbookhttp://www.infotech.com/research/it-capacity-planning-data-collection-tiering-workbookhttp://www.infotech.com/research/it-capacity-planning-data-collection-tiering-workbook


24/40


25/40

Infrastructure_3

Identify dependencies to assess total capacity requirements

25

Data collected for a complete infrastructure

inventory should include:

Device name and model

Server configuration Storage configuration Storage or server dependencies Application dependencies Network hardware configuration Redundancy reviews

The Infrastructure Inventory and Validation worksheet will helpyou to collect and organize data related to the organization'sservers, storage, switches, and routers to further understandrelationships.

This tab has been populated with an example to help you getstarted. Be sure to validate all infrastructure inventory to ensureaccuracy.

Infrastructure_1

Infrastructure_2

Servers SAN

25
http://www.infotech.com/research/it-capacity-planning-data-collection-tiering-workbookhttp://www.infotech.com/research/it-capacity-planning-data-collection-tiering-workbookhttp://www.infotech.com/research/it-capacity-planning-data-collection-tiering-workbookhttp://www.infotech.com/research/it-capacity-planning-data-collection-tiering-workbook


26/40


27/40


28/40

28

Plan the plan: use a Business Plan & Process Checklist to get buy-in for theprocess and track results

Use the Capacity ManagementProcess Checklist to track your

organizations progress in developing

your internal cloud. Additional activitiesand checkpoints can be added to the

checklist, and others removed, tocustomize it to your situation.

The Internal Cloud Business Plan Templatewill help build abusiness plan for the enterprise as well as document business

justifications for any additional projects that are connected toimplementations, such as virtualization, shared storage, andnetwork convergence. The goal is to get all the pieces in placefor an overall strategy. The resulting document is thereforeintended for initial project scoping andfor future reuse, as moreconsolidation strategies are defined.
http://www.infotech.com/research/it-capacity-management-process-checklisthttp://www.infotech.com/research/it-capacity-management-process-checklisthttp://www.infotech.com/research/it-internal-cloud-business-plan-templatehttp://www.infotech.com/research/it-internal-cloud-business-plan-templatehttp://www.infotech.com/research/it-capacity-management-process-checklisthttp://www.infotech.com/research/it-capacity-management-process-checklist


29/40

29

Analyze current capacity:

compare current provisioning to application & business need

Compare the provisioning of apps between high,medium, and low criticality groupings in the workbook.

Are there significant differences between them? Isthere a one size-fits-all approach across apps inservers, networking and storage?

If you have internal SLAs, compare service levels ofany items referenced in the SLA with actualperformance. Are the apps meeting expectations, andare they provisioned adequately to meet expectations?

Review usage of various apps and services of CPU,memory, and I/O devices. This analysis will identifyhigh usage resources that may be a problem if demandincreases in the future.

Record resource utilization and determine major

processes consumed by each app. Identify where each workload spends time. Analyze all

components of the process chain to determine systemresources responsible for the greatest portion ofresponse time for each workload.

1

Align your catalog of apps and dependencies with business expectations of performance and criticality.

Analyze whether current capaci ty is

meeting g ood enough p er formance

requirements by appl icat ion.


30/40

30

Optimize the infrastructure: plan to create service tiers to optimize your

capacity investment

Bronze

Low OPEX on a cost-per-unit basis.

Provides just goodenough levels of

reliability for services. Highly agile environment

suitable to rapid go to

market business

strategies still maturing.Example Workloads:

Test and Development Short duration

processing projects. Fast and cheap

deployment

Gold

Highest CAPEX andOPEX of all tiers.

Highest affordable levelof reliability.

Rigid change controlresults in lowest degreeof agility.

Example Workloads

Mission critical apps

Apps that require ahigher degree of capacitybandwidth

Infrequent updates withlong lead times.

Silver

Higher CAPEX andOPEX than bronze.

Adequate levels ofreliability for services.

Production-level agility,but more rigid thanbronze.

Example Workloads:

Regular production

servers/apps New and updated appsbrought online in aproduction environment.

Rapid deployment a plus

In assessing current capacity, you have seen that not all apps have the samebusiness criticality and performance requirements. In planning infrastructure,look to tiering services by groupings of capacity requirements.

Resist the temptation to treat infrastructure as one-size-fits-all. It has been found that the practice oftiering capacity by service levels significantly impacts consolidation success.

Example of a three-t ier service approach to capacity

.37

.25

.30

.46

.27

.21

Service tiering was correlatedwith each of the above measuresof success in consolidatinginfrastructure.

2

Work through infrastructure planning & development efforts to identify


31/40

31

Work through infrastructure planning & development efforts to identifyopportunities for service tiers

Hardware iscapacity. Service is a function of performance and redundancy. Through the systemsplanning team look for opportunities for service tiering at every level.

Start with consol idated storage: For m any service t iers are synonymous with storage t iers

Storage can be the most expensive part of a consolidated infrastructure, but it need not be treated as a singlemonolithic entity. For storage service tiering, look to matching the fastest (and most expensive) disk with the mostcritical processes and data. Variable redundancydisk, data, and device (including backup)also defines a servicetier. Storage virtualization can also boost utilization/lower costs across tiers. See the Solution Set Mitigate Costs &Maximize Value with a Consolidated Network Storage Strategy.

In servers look at on bo ard redundancy and proc essing archi tecture

The server is the base unit of capacity in a consolidated infrastructure but server pricing can vary depending on the

class of processor, number of processors, and other on board redundancy such as dual power supplies. Form factoradvance such as blades also increase density and reduce footprint. See the Solution Set Build a Server AcquisitionStrategy for the Internal Cloud.

Calculate the impact of t ier ing o n po wer and co ol ing and examine redundancy needs with in the faci l i t ies

Facilities are 40% of total cost of the infrastructure. Efficiencies in all the the above layers will have an impact on theload requirements of the data center. Also look for opportunities to vary facilities redundancy for each service tier(see case study below). The Solution Set Renovate the Data Centerhas significant value even if you are notcurrently renovating. The set has detailed tools for capturing and optimizing facilities costs including the PowerRequirements Calculatorand the Standby Power Supply Calculator.

In networks var iable bandwidth, por t and switch redundancy, impact classes of service

One way variable storage tiers have been be architected is to have tier one storage use faster Fibre Channel ports

and switches while a secondary tier uses Ethernet and iSCSI for storage traffic. Converged networking in 10 gigabitEthernet holds the promise of reducing network complexity while improving performance of both servers andstorage through better I/O and I/O management. In converged I/O variable service becomes a matter of policyrather than hardware. See the Solution Set Craft a Converged Data Center Network Strategy.

U hi l f bi i i f l
http://www.infotech.com/research/ss/construct-a-storage-consolidation-strategyhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/construct-a-storage-consolidation-strategyhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/build-a-server-acquisition-strategy-for-the-internal-cloudhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/build-a-server-acquisition-strategy-for-the-internal-cloudhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/renovate-the-data-centerhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/renovate-the-data-center/data-center-power-requirements-calculator?nav_id=2639http://www.infotech.com/research/ss/renovate-the-data-center/data-center-power-requirements-calculator?nav_id=2639http://www.infotech.com/research/ss/renovate-the-data-center/data-center-standby-power-supply-requirements-calculator?nav_id=2639http://www.infotech.com/research/ss/craft-a-converged-data-center-networking-strategyhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/craft-a-converged-data-center-networking-strategyhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/renovate-the-data-center/data-center-standby-power-supply-requirements-calculator?nav_id=2639http://www.infotech.com/research/ss/renovate-the-data-center/data-center-power-requirements-calculator?nav_id=2639http://www.infotech.com/research/ss/renovate-the-data-center/data-center-power-requirements-calculator?nav_id=2639http://www.infotech.com/research/ss/renovate-the-data-centerhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/build-a-server-acquisition-strategy-for-the-internal-cloudhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/build-a-server-acquisition-strategy-for-the-internal-cloudhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/construct-a-storage-consolidation-strategyhttp://www.infotech.com/research/ss/construct-a-storage-consolidation-strategy


32/40

32

Use this tool for a big picture comparison of total costsfor each infrastructure layer

Detailed TCO analysis is best left to strategies for each infrastructure layer. However this tool can provide a bigpicture snapshot of cost comparison across infrastructure layers.

Exploring opportunities to tier services ininfrastructure layers will yield total cost savingsopportunities. In the following case, for example, amid-sized professional data services firm estimatedpotential savings of more than $20,000 per yeardifference from facilities service tiering alone.

Several of the Solution Sets for planning individualinfrastructure layers (storage, network, network,facilities) have detailed TCO comparisoncalculators. For a big picture at-a-glancecomparison across layers use the InfrastructureTCO Comparison Tool.

Using examples and data from case studies, thistool was developed to illustrates the most common

TCO comparisons: TCO of the existing infrastructure vs. TCO of your proposed project.

TCO of multiple proposed projects (e.g. build a new facility vs. co-location).

Case study: Application of server tiers produces potential
http://www.infotech.com/research/infrastructure-tco-comparison-toolhttp://www.infotech.com/research/infrastructure-tco-comparison-toolhttp://www.infotech.com/research/infrastructure-tco-comparison-toolhttp://www.infotech.com/research/infrastructure-tco-comparison-tool


33/40

Case study: Application of server tiers produces potentialfacility & TCO savings for this mid-sized organization

33

Electricity rate: $0.093Electricity usage per hour: 106 kWCost per year: $86,415.23

All infrastructure components (e.g. servers) arefed with the same A/B-side power and UPS in aone-size-fits-all approach. There is an opportunityfor reducing TCO by assigning less expensivestandards to the infrastructure supplying capacityfor less critical applications.

Before

Electricity rate: $0.093Electricity usage per hour:

Bronze infrastructure: 16 kWSilver infrastructure: 11 kW

Gold infrastructure: 51 kWCost per year: $63,588.64

Managing capacity a way that matches criticalitywith business demand has resulted in servicetiers that save the organization money.

After

Cost per square foot: $864 Cost per square foot: $636- 26%

These savings consider facilities costs alone. Service tiering can achieve even more savings inareas such as server CAPEX, network costs, and reducing the time needed to manage physicalinfrastructure.

A data services company was planning a renovation of their 100 square foot data center. They exploredthe idea of tiering their facilities according to criticality, and calculated the cost savings of $22,827 per year

in doing so.

Analyze the impact of new or updated apps


34/40

c c

34

Analyze the impact of new or updated apps.Pursue a policy of virtualization first for agile provisioning

A gold, silver, or bronze service tier represents abaseline - what is good enough to provision agiven workload in line with its performance andcriticality requirements.

At the server level a service tiers can include bothnative (non-virtual) servers and clusters of serversthat have been partitioned for virtualization.

Taking a virtualize unless otherwise approach,

new and updated apps should be assessed forhosting on the virtualized tier. Updates can includeneeds for new levels of performance and capacity.Legacy apps on end-of-life hardware should alsobe evaluated for migration to the virtual tier.

In order to assess the impact of new workloads oncapacity, careful assessment of requirements isneeded. Use theApplication Assessment Checklist

(modified from Appleton Ideas) as a template fordeveloping your own.

3

Virtualize unless otherwise. Virtualization is a tactic for enabling more efficient and agile provisioning. All new orupdated workloads should be evaluated for virtual hosting.

A trigger for virtualizing core production workloads in several companies has been the realization thatperformance and availability (service) for secondary workloads in their virtual server environment wasbetterthan what for primary workloads in a non-virtual environment.

Consolidated storagewith variable servicetiers

Consolidatednetwork with variableservice tiers

Non-VirtualGold Servers

VirtualizedGold Cluster

Non-VirtualSilver Servers

VirtualizedSilver Cluster

VirtualizedBronze Cluster

P2V Migration

P2V Migration

Visual example of go ld, silver,bronze service t iers with both

vir tual and non -vir tual servers

Note:

Some enterprises may find that virtualinfrastructure is not ready for their gold tier.

Non-virtual servers can include non-standard (non-x86) servers. Some workloads may never be virtualized.

Analyze demand to model service requirements;
http://www.infotech.com/research/it-application-assessment-checklisthttp://www.infotech.com/research/it-application-assessment-checklisthttp://www.infotech.com/research/it-application-assessment-checklist


35/40

35

Analyze demand to model service requirements;identify trends to forecast future business and new workloads

Forecast business activitygrowth in the business will mean more transactional processing. Ifgrowth translates into more staff, it may also translate into more users of applications.

Include increased demand in the analysis of requirements for new and updated applications.

Monitor and analyze capacity requirements over time.

4

From a capacity standpoint, wehit a wall of CPU saturationbefore we realized where thepractical limit was. We learned,with a bit of pain, to use software

to model a trend line telling usyoure going to hit a wall at this

time next year unless you addcapacity.

With current capacity under control, begin looking to the future of the business, and how growth willchange the capacity needed to fuel the required workloads.

Develop a capacity plan: use a reserve capacity


36/40

36

Develop a capacity plan: use a reserve capacitymodel for management & planning

5

The capacity reservation model tierscapacity according to agility, reliability, control, and cost.

The idea of reservation reintroduces the importance of justification for capacity usage. Capacity is

not open ended but reserved for certain kinds of workloads. Reserve capacity enables business units to order IT services as they would from a managed service

provider (including an external infrastructure as a service cloud). But IT can also show the its entirecapability in terms of units (server instances) that can be supported at each level (see the case studyon slide 22 for an example).

Adding a workload to a capacity tier counts against available capacity a limited resource.Accommodating the addition may require spending to increase capacity or removal/retirement of

another workload to free-up capacity.

Each time a unit of capacity from one of the three tiers is provisioned out to the business it is

removed from the pool of available capacity.

The remaining capacity can be monitored as a gas gauge or planning point for bringing additionalcapacity online.

The gas gauge approach avoids ad hoc hardware purchases and avoids over-provisioningand over-spendingas capacity is brought online at each level commensurate with projected need.


37/40

Case study: This manufacturer has deployed tiered services & capacity


38/40

Good news: the advice laid out in this Solution Set works as well in practice as it does in theory. With asolid capacity management plan in place, the organization reports success in realizing benefits andalmost no pitfalls in their comprehensive consolidation efforts.

Case study: This manufacturer has deployed tiered services & capacitymonitoring as it closes on a goal of 99% virtualization

38

The client: Manufacturer of specialty paper products. They have been virtualizing infrastructure for over five years, and nowover 96% of their servers are virtual. The plan is to have 99.5% of the infrastructure virtualized as soon as possible, onlyavoiding virtualization when hardware limitations absolutely prevent it.

Follow a virtualize unless

otherwise physical-to-virtualpolicy

The organization identified a widerange of benefits from virtualizingnearly 100% of their infrastructure,

such as:

Lower costs. Simplified management of physical

resources. Less disruption in service. Great agility. This was the number

one reason to upgrade.

Tier services for cost savings

From storage on up, resources aredivided according to criticality. Themain resource pooling follows athree-tier system similar to the onerecommended by Info-Tech:

High-priority production: workloadscritical to the business.

Monitor capacity to forecast

expansion needs

Current infrastructure load ismonitored in order to know when toadd new hardware.

Trend lines output by automatedsoftware predict when storagecapacity will run out.

Metrics such as CPU and memoryload are pulled from monitoringtools, further informing capacityplanning.

Production: minimum standard for in-use workloads.

Test/dev: non-critical for in-progressworkloads.

Key management tools include

Compellent Storage Managementfor dynamic storage tiering andVMware vCenter.

Prepare for a future of hybrid clouds & cloud bursting


39/40

Prepare for a future of hybrid clouds & cloud bursting

39

The external cloud will continue to develop and mature as the enterprise focuses on internal clouddevelopment. Look for future management solutions to span internal and external clouds

This Solution Set has

focused on internal cloudcapacity management,because for most (76%),internal cloud developmentcomes first. However,opportunities in the externalpublic cloud will continue todevelop and mature over the

next three to five years.Opportunities include:

Hybrid orchestration across internal and externalcloud environments. Internal and externalcapacity will be connected and management willspan both.

External capacity may become a service tier. Forexample, an external infrastructure as a service

cloud could become the bronze tier, so long asredundancy and performance meet internalrequirements.

External cloud capacity will be used on demandto meet spikes in capacity need. This cloud

bursting (see right) will bring the open ended

scalability of external cloud to internalrequirements.

How Cloud Bursting Works

In a cloud bursting scenario, available and appropriatelyredundant capacity is maintained in a public cloud for spikesin need for capacity from internally hosted applications.

Capacityin Use

StandbyCapacity

RedundantCapacity

TotalCapacity

Goodenoughperforma

nce

CurrentNeed

FutureNeed

Capacity inExternal Cloud

Conclusions


40/40

Conclusions

Capacity management isa critical process

In an internal cloud, theorganization bears the full burdenof all capacityused or unused.

Virtualization does not createcapacity. Its benefits can only befully realized with careful capacitymanagement.

Begin capacity management nowto prepare for an increasinglycloudy future.

.15.09

.21 *

.36 *

Capacity Planning

Cost Accounting

Capacity Management

Service Tiers

Start with business needs

Turn data center management

outside-in; think like a serviceprovider delivering IaaS to thebusiness.

Determine total servicerequirements as the total ofperformance, criticality, andgrowth.

Gather a team and documentapps and infrastructure toprepare for advanced capacitymanagement.

Follow the five steps todeveloping a capacity plan

Analyze current capacity,optimize the infrastructure,analyze impact, determinedemand, then develop a planthat takes future growth intoaccount.

Think of capacity as a gasgauge, and divide it into tiers foroptimum success.

Consider automation tools, butmake sure there is a process inplace for automation to havebenefit.

capacity planning issues_a dynamic situation_final

Documents