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Capacity planning, performance, actionable intelligence — and a couple of newer pieces worth starting with.
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An open letter for application owners and the engineers who support them — what to check when the obvious dashboard says everything's fine, and it isn't. Eighteen metrics beyond the usual average, with notes on what each one might really be telling you.
A one-off look at the first 100,000 decimal digits of τ = 2π. Stacked “horse race” by 10k-digit chunks, transition heatmap, and a quick statistical check that τ behaves like a normal number — the same way π does.
YouTube and video. Short conversations from the Moviri “Talking about Performance” series and related webinars. The series began over a lunch conversation with a client who said “This is great stuff, I wish you guys would have recorded this.” So we did. Useful models more than polished demos.
Useful consistent lie is a valuable mental model. Helps you realize that the “exactly correct” answer is almost never relevant.
Average, on average, is a below-average metric. And a bit about minimum idle workers.
Moviri USA, guest presenter for Flycast Partners weekly webinar. We used BMC TrueSight Capacity Optimization V11.x as our example. There was a problem sharing the screen (resolved at 6:30) but we fell back on a PowerPoint presentation so, while not interactive, it did meet the goals.
Andrea Vasco invited a revised version of a keynote presented many times over the years. The session showcases HCSC’s journey deploying an internal chargeback process — a story of what it took for IT to show the business the actual, quantified value of their services. This topic resonated with many IT directors and leaders; it provides insight into the pains customers face while selling solutions internally.
This series focuses on using TSCO (TrueSight Capacity Optimization) with native data as much as practicable, so any TSCO user can follow the examples exactly, then apply the tools and techniques to other use cases. Videos and supporting slide decks.
A webinar conversation about the TrueSight Capacity Optimization value proposition for Information Technology. Our goal is to help clarify the capacity optimization value proposition, and to provide specific tools and techniques to assist in the Quest for Actionable Intelligence.
Our goal is to show options for getting help with your TSCO environment, expand your tools and techniques, and to more effectively, efficiently, and purposefully pursue your Quest for Actionable Intelligence. We go beyond the obvious TSCO documentation options and the BMC Communities page. Using the most powerful idea ever — “If I can do that, then I should be able to do…” — we step through finding a metric of interest on the internet, investigating that metric in our environment, then incorporating that metric into the quest.
Our goal is to help clarify the capacity optimization mission, and to provide tools and techniques to assist in the Quest for Actionable Intelligence. With a clear mission and actionable intelligence, the capacity optimization function delivers significant value to the organization. In this session, Filter Based Reporting becomes the focus.
Our goal is to help clarify the capacity optimization mission, and to provide tools and techniques to assist in the Quest for Actionable Intelligence. With a clear mission and actionable intelligence, the capacity optimization function delivers significant value to the organization. In this session, Exception Reporting becomes the focus.
Our goal is to help clarify the capacity optimization mission, and to provide tools and techniques to assist in the Quest for Actionable Intelligence. With a clear mission and actionable intelligence, the capacity optimization function delivers significant value to the organization. In this session, the Workspace Tab Design and Organization becomes the focus.
Clarifies installing ETL Modules, specifically the HP NNMi Module. Frequently performed by system administrators, not TSCO admins. Helps stitch together the tasks and clarifies assumptions on how to get the install software and where to configure the various software pieces. In this session the Information Technology Administrator is addressed — not the TSCO administrator.
Talks given at CMG regional and national meetings, BMC Engage, and related venues. Most include the original slide decks.
A conversation that explores a real-world example of how reliance on average on 15-second data slices failed to reveal actionable intelligence. We encourage the use of other metrics that seem neglected such as minimum, maximum, and 95th percentile. The example data is minimum idle workers, an overlooked JVM metric that caused problems in our production environment for months but once found and monitored effectively, eliminated dozens of support incidents a week.
Original version of the argument. Source of the idle-workers example used in the open letter above.
A conversation that explores our adventures with chargeback, and the value of “useful consistent lies.” Let’s start by stating that chargeback is easy. Trivial even. It is simple math. What is your recovery target divided by the number of items expected to be “sold.” There you have it. So what is a useful consistent lie, and what is its value? It is everything around you and how you understand it. When your understanding is sufficient for the conversation, you use that understanding within the conversation, and the value is that the conversation can now be conducted with a reasonable degree of mutual understanding.
A revisit of a presentation called “Incorporating Weather Data Into Capacity Planning Analysis,” originally presented at St Louis CMG in 2018 and CMG imPACt 2017. While the original focus was on incorporating weather data into capacity analysis, a relevant observation was made around the impact that cultural events have on IT capacity. This is a summary of those observations and an expansion to include how they could be leveraged in the times of COVID-19. Guest appearance from Business Continuity Plan, Disaster Recovery Plan, and Flexibility as defined in Policy and Procedure.
We are using an example of the evolution of a question that turned into a search for data, then making an ETL (Extract Transform Load) to get data into a capacity tool, where we made charts, analyzed them using dozens of different conceptual models, and took action. All using BMC’s TrueSight Capacity Optimization 11.3 solution. While we show the detailed steps used in the TSCO solution, the models, tools and techniques apply to any data analysis effort. The conscious use of models is one of the main points of this conversation.
A conversation that explores the investigation mission you should be on, and why “actionable” has to end in actual action against business risk.
Actionable intelligence is obtained in so many different ways, by so many people, that TrueSight Capacity Optimization becomes a virtual mother lode for it. Join us for real-life examples of how HCSC extracts actionable intelligence from TrueSight Capacity Optimization. Practical view of the tools and techniques: analysis of diverse data assembled in TSCO; chargeback to projects and APM applications; IT costs vs. IT charges in chargeback models; opening TrueSight to “the masses” and just-in-time training; views customized to application owners and equipment owners, as well as views focusing on opportunity cost; analysis used to find over-used equipment (and provide more resources); analysis to root out under-used systems for retirement (the concept of server vs. service is important here). Includes bonus training materials.
An updated conversation, based on the BMC Engage 2014 presentation, on why chargeback was important to us, what got in our way, and how we overcame the obstacles, and how we were able to achieve chargeback goals using BMC Capacity Optimization (BCO).
Earlier version of the cost-transparency / chargeback story from Engage 2014.
Older presentations and articles that still hold up, or that document ideas that later reappeared in the capacity work.
BCO Overview Use Case 001 — Alert from Monitoring Team Use Case 002 — Application Reports Use Case 004 — High Storage Utilization Use Case 006 — Application SME Investigation Viewer Welcome User Welcome
Lunch-and-learn format. Using the OSI model as a framework so an auditor can place context around a compliance question, break it into manageable parts, examine them, then look at the question as a whole.
Referenced by libraries, schools, and consultants in the US, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Still relevant. Includes the most powerful idea in computing: “If I can do that… then I should be able to do…”
Referenced the then-site “The Computer Guy” ahead of Apple, Compaq, IBM, Dell, Gateway 2000 and others. Local version of the related piece: How to Buy Computer Hardware. Specific examples are dated; the thesis still holds.