Capacity planning

[jmtiamson]

hi to everyone... I need help in creating a WAN capacity planning...

[spremkumar]

Hi

Do throw more clarity about your exact requirement on wan capacity planning since its a broad topic covering whole lot of things contained in it..

regds

[jmtiamson]

hi,

what im looking for is like a model or guidelines doing the capacity planning, like an outline pin pointing the things that should be included in the capacity planning, like tools, what should we monitor etc... and also the planning techniques and approach are we doing it monthly evaluation etc...what im trying to do is like a standard of capacity planning

[jmtiamson]

what i was looking for is more on network management and monitoring

i was tasked to develop a methodology on network capacity planning

and i want to know where should i start. the document outline and its detail. what are the variable that i should gather and what analytical method should i use. and also setting up the treshold for alerts

[vincent-n]

Hi there

Just letting you know that I've been tasked for similar report/documentation from the business. just wanted to know how you went and may be you can share the information/documentation if possible. Greatly appreciate your response on this matter.

Regards

Vincent

[Leo Laohoo]

Hi Vincent,

In my humble opinion, Capacity Planning isn't that easy.  I'd recommend you consider hiring a consultant.  There are a number of combinations and factors before you can come up with a viable one.  You get one (or more) of these wrong ... you know what happens.  With a paid consultant, you and your business has a Service Level Agreement (SLA) and if the submitted documents is not up to scratch, well you get compensation.

Take our case, for instance.  We had a Capacity Planning done by a hired consultant company.  They told us, in writting, that in order to do this you need the following list of equipments and associated products.  So off we went with a shopping list as long as a chinese take-away.

When we tried to implement the solution, it wouldn't work because the one of the equipment quoted wouldn't do the critical function required.  After a few months of investigation, including a Cisco TAC, it was finally agreed that the consultant was wrong and they had to compensate us by giving us the right equipment FREE.

[Marvin Rhoads]

Absent a more specific set of requirements, one could alway follow the scientific method: problem statement, hypothesis, assumptions, analysis and conclusions. Document tht all in writing. Feed the analysis as much empirical data as is available and make documented assumptions about the remainder. Formalize a process for iterating the model with infusions of new data and validation of previous assumptions. Repeat on a regular basis.

There you have it - one paragraph summary. Regardfing outsourcing it to a consultant - I would submit that capacity planning needs to be integrated into your business processes to be successful in the long term. A one time consultant's report does not accomplish that.