Presentations
This section contains presentations given by Capacitas staff at various public events.
CMG 2007, December 2nd to 7th 2007, San Diego, California
Performance Assurance: How To Add Value Beyond Performance Testing
Whilst performance testing is well recognised as a discipline within the application development lifecycle it is only part of an end-to-end performance assurance process. Software and systems quality, with specific regard to performance, should be assessed using a triumvirate of methods: firstly performance and capacity modeling; secondly performance, load and soak testing; and finally capacity management. By utilising all three techniques appropriately it is possible to provide a holistic approach to application performance that can significantly improve mitigation of risks, thereby adding considerable value to the development process. This presentation will demonstrate how and when each of these three processes should be used, how to provide an integrated approach across the development lifecycle and, using real-life case-studies, how this has added value to clients' projects. Also addressed is how this three-phased approach can work within the challenges of an Agile development process.
ITIL V3 Capacity Management: A Practitioner’s Review
ITIL Version 3 has recently been launched to much fanfare with its structure a radical re-design from ITIL Version 2. The Capacity Management process is affected considerably as it is now spread across all five of the 'core' books: Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement. In this presentation the changes within ITIL Version 3 that impacting on the Capacity Management process will be covered in detail.
itSMF Capacity Management, July 11th 2007
Cost Effective Capacity Modelling - A Real-life Case Study
This presentation explains how Excel was used to develop a detailed capacity model for a key system. The goals of the model were as follows:
Predict CPU, memory and filesystem space requirements for the next 18 months
1. Model different hardware configurations
2. Determine capacity requirements during various failover scenarios
3. Model the impact of planned changes to the application. The model ensured that the system had sufficient capacity to support the peak demand for the next 18 months
4. The model was delivered within ten weeks elapsed time; at a cost equivalent to approximately 1% of the daily revenue dependent on the system.
UKCMG Annual Conference and Exhibition 2007, 25th to 27th June 2007
Windows Vista© and Windows Server 2008© Performance
Microsoft recently released the Windows Vista© desktop operating system, whilst Windows Server 2008© is expected to be available from late 2007. Both products contain a number of bundled performance monitoring tools. This presentation provides an introduction to Microsoft's latest operating system versions, and describes the changes to Task Manager and Performance Monitor as well as the new Reliability and Performance tool.
Using ITIL to Build a Successful Capacity Management Process
It may be agreed that the ITIL Capacity Management Process has some weaknesses but its major strength is in the framework that it provides, particularly in the way that Capacity Management should interface with other ITIL processes. In this presentation we look at how ITIL can be used to provide the framework for a sound Capacity Planning Process and how the ITIL self-assessment can be improved upon to enable that work to begin.
Application Virtualisation: The Future of Distributed Computing?
Virtualisation is rapidly becoming the standard operating model for many aspects of information technology. Recently desktop applications have become the latest target of virtualisation with Microsoft's SoftGrid technology. This presentation covers the principles behind this new technology and the dramatic impact this will have on the processes, resources and infrastructure needed to manage a modern complex IT environment.
itSMF Seminar: Financial Management - The Chamber of Secrets, 6th December 2006
Cross-Charging Mechanisms, demonstrated with real-life Case Studies IT Chargeback or recharge, is not a new concept, ITIL has described Financial Management from its inception. Typically, organisations are told that their charging mechanisms have to be fair, consistent, auditable and easily understood. This presentation looks at some real-life situations and how the existing and enhanced charging mechanisms of the organisations being described have shaped customer behaviour and influenced the organisations decisions, both positively and with unfortunate circumstances. The emphasis of the presentation is placed on how IT hardware resource costs are measured and apportioned and how subtle changes can make significant differences to how the business operates.
UKCMG Industry Forum, 27th November 2006
Capacity and Performance Management of IP Networks Using IP Flow Measurement
Capacity and performance management of IP networks has traditionally been a difficult task given the large number of ICT services that typically share network resources. The continued convergence of services onto a single IP network will exacerbate things further.
This paper discusses the how IP flow measurement works and the benefits of employing it for network capacity and performance management. The paper details the challenges associated with deploying IP flow measurement and provides a discussion of the current IP flow measurement market offerings.
UKCMG 2006 Annual Conference, 25th to 28th June 2006
A Ten Step Plan to Effective Capacity Management
Designing and building an effective capacity management function has never been harder: the competition for talented staff is high, as is the current workload of projects and 'business-as-usual'. At the same time salary and training budgets are often constrained. How does the contemporary capacity manager cope with these challenges? Follow our ten-step plan to designing and building an effective capacity management function; wherever your starting point and whatever your challenges you will find useful techniques here!Cost Effective Capacity Modelling - A Real-life Case Study
This presentation explains how Excel was used to develop a detailed capacity model for a key system. The goals of the model were as follows:
Predict CPU, memory and filesystem space requirements for the next 18 months
1. Model different hardware configurations
2. Determine capacity requirements during various failover scenarios
3. Model the impact of planned changes to the application. The model ensured that the system had sufficient capacity to support the peak demand for the next 18 months
4. The model was delivered within ten weeks elapsed time; at a cost equivalent to approximately 1% of the daily revenue dependent on the system
UKCMG Industry Forum, 21st November 2005
Ten Days to Better Application Performance: A Real-life Case Study
This presentation explains an investigation that was conducted to identify and fix the causes of poor performance of a goods tracking and ordering system
Freely available monitoring tools were used to monitor the performance and capacity of the production system over a period of a few days
A number of key business transactions were identified and monitored in more detail in isolation using profiling tools
After five days of investigation conducted over a ten-day period, a set of recommendations were delivered that were used to reduce end-user response times for some transactions from minutes to seconds
EuroCMG 2005 Annual Conference, 23rd to 25th May 2005
Understanding Linux Performance
Linux is gaining in popularity as a commercial operating system. It is highly tuneable and has evolved rapidly between distributions/releases. However, documentation on how each distribution/release of the operating system works is scarce. In this presentation I will discuss problems I have identified when attempting to determine the factors important for Linux performance and capacity planning (such as differences in the paging algorithm between versions of Linux). This presentation will be of interest to anyone who wants to conduct performance and capacity management or configuration management on systems running Linux.Performance Anti-Patterns using Enterprise Java Beans (EJB)
The performance on a system may be dependent on the health of external systems. This paper highlights designs where the response time of inbound transactions is coupled to the performance of external systems. The presentation concentrates on an example using EJB technology.Implementing an End-to-End Performance Model of an E-Commerce System in Microsoft Excel
This paper describes the implementation of an end to end performance model of a business critical e-commerce system. The model was developed to ensure that service levels were met in the face of growing business volumes. The author discusses the methodology used and issues encountered.ITIL Capacity Management: Is it really 'best practice' or is there room for improvement?
The IT Infrastructure Library covers the comprehensive topic of Capacity Management in a mere 44 pages of its Service Delivery book. Whilst ITIL does a good job at explaining the main deliverables of a capacity management process, in the context of a service management framework, it does lack some key details of "best-practice" capacity management. ITIL also does not stress the importance of Capacity Management to the entire Service Delivery set of processes. This presentation recognises the true importance of capacity management and its relationship as the foundation of Service Delivery.
UKCMG Industry Forum, 24th November 2004
UKCMG 2004 Annual Conference, 24th to 26th May 2004
UKCMG South East Regional Meeting, 23rd March 2004
UKCMG Industry Forum, 20th November 2003
Network Capacity Planning: Why is it so different?
Many novice and seasoned system capacity planners avoid network capacity planning. It is often regarded as significantly different to mainframe or distributed systems capacity planning. With the introduction of Internet Protocol Virtual Private Networks (IP VPNs) the systems capacity planner must now adapt their skills to include network capacity planning or they will be ignoring a major factor within end-to-end performance of contemporary applications. This presentation is intended to dispel the myths surrounding network capacity planning, and hence enable the systems capacity planner to understand how to plan end-to-end systems.Network Service Continuity Management
Service Continuity Management is of paramount importance in the modern global environment. One component of all information services that is often ignored is "the network". By purchasing a service level agreement with a network supplier it is often believed that the problem of risk management has been outsourced to them too! This is an incorrect and dangerous assumption, as the last two years have shown. Drawing on several real incidents this presentation demonstrates the very real need to perform stringent risk management on the network, especially if it is outsourced.
UKCMG 2003 Annual Conference, 21st to 23rd May 2003
UKCMG South East Regional Meeting, 24th March 2003
Effective Demand Driven Capacity Planning:- Improved Expenditure Control and Customer Service
Capacity Planners require a proactive planning method which can accurately determine future required network or system capacity - trending techniques alone do not offer this level of accuracy. Although they can be the basis for general growth forecasts, they cannot reflect step changes or new services. Only Demand Driven techniques can respond to market changes rapidly while assisting the Capacity Planner with their quest for accuracy.