Patent ID: 8056082

Claim:
A method for capacity management and predictive planning, the method comprising: monitoring with a capacity management and predictive planning computing device one or more factors related to a capacity of at least one of one or more server systems, a number of users, and which of one or more services are used on each of the at least one of the one or more server systems; obtaining with the planning computing device at least one type of financial cost data related to at least one of the server systems; trending with the planning computing device a rate of change of the one or more monitored factors; determining with the planning computing device when at least one of an increase in the capacity in at least one of the servers systems and an addition of one or more additional server systems is needed based on the monitoring and the trending; determining with the planning computing device an upgrade financial cost for at least one of the adding capacity to the at least one of the servers systems and the adding one or more additional server systems and an average financial cost per user per service on the at least one of the one or more server systems based on the obtained financial cost data and the monitored number of users services used; and providing within a set advance notification time period with the planning computing device the determined upgrade financial cost and the average financial cost per user per service on the at least one of the one or more server systems and at least one of a notification of at least one of the need to increase capacity and the need to add one or more additional server systems and an initiation of an automated provisioning of at least one of an increase in the capacity in at least one of the server systems and the addition of one or more additional server systems when the determining determines the at least one of increasing capacity in at least one of the servers systems and adding one or more additional server systems is needed.