Data Centre Capacity Planning

“What matters most to the computer designers at Google is not speed but power – low-power, because data centres can consume as much electricity as a city” Eric Schmidt, CEO, Google

Capacity planning of the data centre provides a critical role in the provision of stable, reliable ICT services to the business. Furthermore, research has demonstrated that 80% of annual IT costs are driven by amortised data centre capital costs, which highlights the strategic role capacity planning has in cost control.

Need

• Long lead times for data centre build-outs (typically 16 months for new builds) requires proactive planning
• Expanding capacity represents a significant capital cost that must be planned
• Capacity constraints in the data centre have the potential to impact numerous business-critical services
• Capacity constraints in the data centre have the potential to delay the deployment of new business services, thereby reducing business competitiveness
• Energy suppliers require capacity forecasts in order to ensure sufficient capacity is provisioned from the grid

Challenges

• Power consumption per unit of ICT investment is growing, driving demand
• Rising energy costs
• Multiple capacity constraints must be accounted for (e.g. space, power and cooling capacity)
• Data centre demand from the organic growth of existing business services and introduction of new business services
• New technologies such as virtualisation and grid computing will radically alter the demand profile
• Technology lifecycles are typically of the order of 3 years, whilst data centre lifecycles are much longer

Our Service

Our staff combine leading capacity planning methodologies with an understanding of how the end-to-end technical architecture (server technologies, virtualisation technologies, network technologies, etc) impacts data centre capacity. Our data centre capacity planning service includes the following components:

• Demand Forecasting
  • ‘Demand funnelling’ techniques to evaluate future demand from new business services
  • Statistical forecasting methodologies to assess long-term demand
  • Demand split by production, test, pre-production, etc. environments
  • Quantification of demand forecast error margin
  • Evaluation of infrastructure power demands based on measurement and our previous experience

• Capacity Modelling
  • A modelling approach that translates business demand into infrastructure requirements and associated costs
  • Modelling of data centre design features such as spatial, power and cooling constraints
  • Modelling of both incremental demand and reductions from decommissioning, consolidation, etc.
  • Modelling of new and disruptive technologies
  • The capability to deliver both business and technical scenario modelling

• Cost Modelling
  • Ability to assess the cost impact of varying design selections and business demand scenarios
  • Specification of both operational and capital costs
  • Ability to manage risk in the context of volatile energy prices
  • Understand the demand and supply elements that drive overall cost

Features & Benefits

Delivering Results:

• Mitigates the risk of data centre capacity constraints and the resultant impact to business services
• Promotes effective cost control of what is a major driver of the IT budget
• Reduces the risk of inappropriate spend on data centre capacity

Value-for-Money:

• Our team is based on a blend of consultant grades to provide a competitive offering
• Capability to offer fixed-priced engagements where required

Pragmatic Approach:

• Conduct a risk assessment to identify the supply and demand elements that are fundamental to the problem domain and thus should be the focus of planning

Example Customers

• Yell
• Migration Solutions

Next Steps

• Review the Resources section on this page
• To email for further information click here
• Call our offices on +44 (0) 20 7841 9950 to arrange a meeting