Planning for capacity includes planning for sizing, performance, and availability. By calculating your initial capacity needs and projecting future business activity, you can improve your server performance and availability while minimizing costs. Many of the capacity planning tools and the steps that you take can also be used to capture performance and availability data. Capacity planning tools differ according to the operating systems that run on your servers.
Regardless of operating environment, your capacity planning might include planning for Capacity on Demand (CoD). CoD allows you to purchase a server with excess capacity and only pay for the capacity that you need. You can activate the standby processors or memory units temporarily or permanently as your business grows or on a seasonal basis. If you build CoD into your capacity plan, you ensure that you have the capacity when you need it.
See the following information to plan for capacity on your servers: