Efficient IT growth demands estimates, Not guesstimates

Sai Sundhar Padmanabhan

NEW DELHI, INDIA: In most organizations, growth means more users accessing an expanding number of IT services and applications. Growth puts an immense load on the IT network and on the IT team, who need to plan for the network impact and ensure zero downtime while deploying new applications and services.

The IT team should conduct a detailed impact analysis before launching any new application or service. The team also needs to factor in the dangers of a power outage during a launch. In addition, it is essential for the IT team to take into account how a new application or service will affect the bandwidth of the IT network.

While the IT network administrators could make assumptions about the risks involved, that could be a mistake as costly as directly launching the applications!

When the risks are high, being prepared for the worst puts IT teams in the driver's seat. A prepared IT team also presents a more positive and responsible image to the stakeholders. And guesstimation is no way to prepare.

Plan! Plan! Plan!

A simple way of getting rid of guesstimation is capacity planning, which lets you assess IT requirements based on business forecasts. It helps you understand the current business environment and even predict how business processes will evolve and affect the IT environment.

Capacity planning helps eliminate guess work, and you could get sufficient data points by following these steps:

* List the top applications used on the network

* Identify the most prominent network links

* Understand link usage over a period of time

* Track business hour traffic

* Measure bandwidth consumption at different times in a day

By measuring these parameters, you can easily eliminate guess work and minimize the risks to a great extent. You will also be able to better estimate future bandwidth demands. Other benefits of capacity planning:

* Better forecast of organizational growth impact on IT

* Proper resource allocation to support growth

* Prevention of outages due to resource shortages

* Reduction in downtime

* Identification and rectification of bandwidth loopholes

* Seamless expansion of IT resources & services

Several vendors offer capacity planning as a feature with their network monitoring immense use to IT teams. If your network devices are capable of exporting flows, this data can act as an invaluable tool in helping you perform proper capacity planning based on flow data.

Stop guesstimating and start estimating for a smooth expansion of your IT network. Reap the benefits of capacity planning.

(The author works at ManageEngine as senior product consultant)

(The views expressed in this article are that of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of CIOL)