Data center capacity planning, explained plainly, is the process of setting up a plan to make sure that the power load, resources, footprint, data center cooling capacity, etc. of an IT organization have the capacity to do what end-users and customers will need them to do. These specifications must be planned accordingly because planning either too much or too little could have drastic consequences.

Why Is It Crucial?

Preparing for too little capacity means that IT organizations will not be able to meet the demands of customers. Without proper power or cooling capacity, the power structures are at a higher risk of outages. If there is not a proper amount of computing and storage, latency is increased. Designing a plan that includes too much capacity means that servers will go unused and too much energy and money will be spent on power and cooling. Up to 40% of data center operational costs are put towards the energy needed to power and cool data center equipment. Expecting too much capacity also means that an unnecessary amount of floor space is being used for unused servers.

Who Is In Charge of Data Center Capacity Planning?

Typically, a manager of a data center oversees capacity strategizing and implementation. They are the ones who consider all the factors that go into the blueprint of the data center operations. This is one of many reasons that choosing an experienced data center service, that is able to educate organizations on their processes, is so important. Consider looking for data center services that have software tools that allow for real-time planning of their data center space, such as LDP Associates. We provide concurrent fail-over analysis and detail about our power, cooling, and physical space in order to maximize our customer’s DC utilization.

How Exactly Does Data Center Capacity Planning Work?

The data center manager should utilize service performance metrics that have been agreed upon prior, for example storing data for a certain number of days and running applications with a certain response time. After this is implemented, load calculations must be made at both peak and normal performance times in order to track trends and benchmarks. Data center managers often consider virtualization — meaning they can stack varying workloads onto a single physical server and power off others.

To learn more about data center capacity planning, or to receive high-quality data center maintenance or data center installation, contact LDP Associates. We have the tools and knowledge to get you where you need to be.