Planning Secures Capacity Issues

That is, until now.

As larger network management vendors invest in performance-assurance solutions that automatically diagnose and repair problems, a number of smaller companies have introduced hardware and software designed to test the limits of a network and prevent problems before they occur. Insiders call this "capacity planning" and liken it to a strategic, pre-emptive strike against downtime that can save customers millions of dollars.

"People become so accustomed to dealing with capacity after the network has faltered that they don't realize they can make it so capacity is never an issue at all," said Steve Denato, sales manager for Vega Business Technologies, a network-oriented solution provider in San Diego. "Once you convince them capacity planning is possible, they can't get enough."

Vega is part of the channel program at Cupertino, Calif.-based Packeteer, one of the leaders in the capacity-planning marketplace. Other companies, such as OPNET Technologies, Concord Communications, Voyence and NetIQ, dabble in the technology as well and hail their channel partners as the ones who make capacity-planning deals come to life.

Then, of course, there are the newbies,relatively young vendors that have burst onto the scene specifically to address the issue of helping businesses meet any capacity need. In Schaumburg, Ill., a nascent Network Associates spinoff named NEXVU recently released the Command Center, an appliance that sits on a network and helps managers plan capacity by evaluating application usability from an end user's perspective.

For Dennis O'Connell, vice president of sales at NEXVU solution provider Meridian IT Solutions, this tool provides a perfect complement to pre-existing network management offerings. "Capacity planning is all about usability. While other resellers are focused on reactive approaches to performance problems, [the NEXVU tool] enables us to stand out by offering customers the option of being proactive for a change," O'Connell said.

Where does capacity planning go from here? On the vendor side, experts such as Simon Berman, director of product marketing at Mercury Interactive, Marlboro, Mass., see the niche as a growing component of network management and predict that capacity planning could become a significant part of the market before the end of the year.

Among analysts, however, skepticism prevails. "Capacity planning is not, nor will it ever be, a commodity buy," said Dennis Drogseth, vice president at Enterprise Management Associates, Boulder, Colo. "Is it helpful? Yes. Is it necessary? Not by a long shot. Not yet."