• Forthcoming UKCMG Conference and Exhibition - 19th-21st May
• New Certification: IBM Mainframe Capacity & Performance Practitioner
• New Training Courses:
  • Introduction to Capacity Management
  • Capacity & Performance Management using Server Virtualisation
  • Capacity & Performance Management of Microsoft SQL Server
• Forthcoming training course calendar
• On-line Self-Assessment and Capacity Management Audit

UKCMG Annual Conference, 19th-21st May 2008

UKCMG will be holding its Annual Conference in 2008 at Whittlebury Hall in Northamptonshire, close to Silverstone. Capacitas are a Silver Sponsor of this event and will be present to answer your questions about our services and training courses. We will also be providing updated information on our training and certification programme. All these will be covered in more detail at our vendor session which is on Monday at 14:15-14:45.

Capacitas staff will be on hand to discuss our market-leading syllabus of training courses and programme of seminars. We will have a range of our course and seminar material available for you to review, please find us at stand 12.

In addition Capacitas is presenting on the following topics:

• ITIL V3 Capacity Management: A Practitioner's Review, Session 2E1
• Low Cost Accurate Batch Modelling - A Case Study, Session 2B3
• Conducting Workload Management on Windows Server, Session 2B4

The presentation material will be available after the event on our website Research area.

The Capacitas Accreditation Programme is a unique offering that enables ICT capacity and performance management professionals to gain a recognised qualification. The programme is based around Capacitas's market-leading suite of training courses with accompanying examinations. Examinations are sat at the Capacitas Training Centre in Farringdon, London and are multiple choice based. The Accreditation comprises four levels:

• Foundation Certificate
• Practitioner Certificate
• Advanced Practitioner Certificate
• Management Certificate

IBM Mainframe Practitioner Certificate in Capacity and Performance Management Foundation Tutorial

This half day tutorial prepares students for the IBM Mainframe Practitioner Certificate in Capacity & Performance Management. The syllabus for this certificate is based on the IBM Mainframe Capacity and Performance Management course, which is a prerequisite. The tutorial addresses the key learning points from the IBM Mainframe Capacity and Performance Management course and also includes a mock examination. The tutorial occurs in the morning and the exam occurs after lunch.

The exam will consist of 40 multiple choice questions. The exam duration is 1 hour. The fee is £250+VAT which also includes the exam fee of £75+VAT.

IBM Mainframe Practitioner Certificate in Capacity & Performance Management Examination

The examination covers topics from the IBM Mainframe Capacity and Performance Management course including resources, workloads, virtualisation, subsystems, monitoring, SMF/RMF, Workload Manager, performance issues and configuration and tuning.

The examination measures each candidate’s understanding of the concepts and techniques surrounding capacity and performance of IBM mainframe systems. The examination duration is 1 hour. The standalone fee is £75+VAT. Previous attendance of the IBM Mainframe Capacity and Performance Management course is mandatory.

London, UK, Training Centre:

Please click on the above links to review the course descriptions or email us at Capacitas Training. More details...

Using Microsoft Excel for Effective Capacity & Performance Management

Microsoft Excel is widely available but its capabilities are surprisingly underused, especially its ability to analyse and report on capacity and performance data. This seminar gives practical advice on how to undertake a multitude of tasks using Excel. The workshop is platform independent, using various sources of data in demonstrations, and focuses on providing a value-for-money approach to capacity and performance analytical tools. Topics covered include pivot tables, filtering, batch modelling, surface plots, forecasting functions, automation and charts.

Feedback from attendees of previous events can be found by following this link. This workshop will cost £500+VAT. Those registered at least one month before the event will quality for a discount of £100+VAT. To register please email Excel for Capacity and Performance Workshop, or call 020 7841 9950. More details...

Capacity Management Self-Assessment

This is a web-based service that allows the user to answer questions relating to their organisation's Capacity Management discipline. The user then receives an emailed report presenting the results as a radar diagram comparing the user's results to the target, average and best previous results so far.

The questions are combined into five categories:

• Interfaces
• Organisation
• Resources
• Capacity Management Infrastructure
• Deliverables and Services

The service has been designed to be an improvement on the ITIL V2 Capacity Management Self-Assessment, which has 58 questions but only yes/no options as answers. The major flaw in the ITIL version is that it does not allow the user to describe the extent to which their practices are compliant with the ITIL practices. This confusion reduces the value in comparing one's results to other organisations as it is unclear if the same understanding has been reached by each respondent.

The Capacitas Capacity Management Self-Assessment avoids this confusion by asking unambiguous questions that should allow any user to clearly understand how they should answer (assuming of course that they know enough about their own organisation). Furthermore each question has a useful 'hovering' help tip to give further advice.

For more information on the Capacity Management Self-Assessment please follow this link.

For customers who need more assistance in bringing their Capacity Management discipline to the target level Capacitas offer a Capacity Management Audit.

This service is more comprehensive than the self-assessment. Capacitas consultants will work on site with the customer's staff and collect evidence of which activities are carried out and to what extent and quality standard they are carried out to.

For more information on the Capacity Management Audit service please follow this link or email us.

Recent customers of Capacitas include: easyJet, HBOS, EDF Energy, Skinkers, HSBC, ING, HM Land Registry, Prudential, Orange, BT, Scottish & Southern Energy, Accenture, Ericsson Services, LCH Clearnet and Orange. For more details on what some of our customers have to say about us please have a look at our testimonials and training feedback pages.

"Capacitas assisted us in creating a demand model to enable us to forecast various usage scenarios. This has allowed us to predict potential peak demand for the Livestation broadcast over broadband platform. Working to a demanding deadline, based on our initial input assumptions, Capacitas was able to provide us with a model that has proved invaluable for our operational planning and financial forecasting." Read more...

David McAdam,
Head of Program Management
& Operations, Livestation

If you are interested in learning more about our services please email Enquiries, or call +44 (0) 20 7841 9950.