Capacity Planning
Definition
The process of determining the cloud resources needed to meet current and future workload demands while optimizing costs.
Use Cases
- Airbnb: Seasonal Traffic Management — Analyzes historical booking patterns to pre-provision infrastructure before peak travel seasons (Handles 10x traffic spikes during holidays with zero downtime and 40% cost savings vs static provisioning)
Provider Equivalents
- AWS: AWS Compute Optimizer, Trusted Advisor
- Azure: Azure Advisor, Cost Management
- GCP: GCP Recommender, Active Assist
- OCI: OCI Cloud Advisor
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the difference between capacity planning and auto scaling?
- Capacity planning is the strategic process of forecasting resource needs, while auto scaling is the tactical mechanism that adjusts resources in real-time. Good capacity planning sets the boundaries within which auto scaling operates.
- How do I start with cloud capacity planning?
- Begin by monitoring current resource utilization for at least 30 days, identify peak and off-peak patterns, set target utilization thresholds (typically 60-80%), and use provider tools like AWS Compute Optimizer to get sizing recommendations.
Category: cloud
Difficulty: intermediate
Related Terms
See Also