IT strategy is enabling business strategy. Verizon Wireless�is built on technology and uses technology to drive customer success.

TeamQuest analytics are a required component of the purchasing approval process. Without the necessary TeamQuest proof, funding requests are denied.

TeamQuest is the “Source of Truth” Used to monitor and optimize every environment: Solaris, Windows, HPUX, AIX, VMware, and Linux. Used to forecast future performance and also a deep dive diagnostic tool.

As we heard from Cameron Haight earlier, mentoring is key. Verizon Wireless pairs veteran TeamQuest users with those who have been identified needing capacity management experience.

Planning for Demand Peaks -Verizon Wireless is able to accurately predict peak utilization within 5% on critical Point Of Sale systems on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Integrates TeamQuest with HP Openview to monitor key performance indicators. Plan to create dynamic thresholds using historical data collected by TeamQuest and setting alarms on a percentage deviation from the baseline.

Iconic Device Launch (IDL) Planning. VzW started selling a certain phone that many of your are aware of and all VzW teams used TeamQuest to forecast their hardware needs and guaranteed themselves to be ready for a successful launch day. They sold more Apple iPhones in the first 2 hours of the launch (3AM to 5AM) than any previous single day in Verizon Wireless history. Over 62% of sales were online–all systems performed within planned thresholds and no performance issues were encountered in stores, online or by customers activating their new phones.

Verizon Wireless customer satisfaction is high, and continues to be, for existing and new customers. Focus on the Customer - Deliver Value to the Bottom Line!

Gartner Research Vice President, Cameron Haight began the event and noted that there are a variety of perceptions of capacity planners: mysterious an using arcane tools, honest, but focused on minutiae, unapproachable and living in an ivory tower, old fashioned and living in the past, and my personal favorite, “nerdy but generally harmless.”

Haight continued to discuss the Jevons Paradox - the more technology driven efficiency we have, the greater the amount of consumption. Cloud sprawl is inevitable. Cloud doesn’t eliminate the need for capacity planning, it makes it more important.

The world is evolving, is our focus as capacity planners? (social networking, energy costs, mobile technology, Web 2.0, cloud, VDI)

Another Issue: A Failure to (Appropriately) Communicate. Translating the language of the business into the language of IT. Number of trades in an hour vs CPU processing power, End-of-quarter financial processing vs database growth projections, etc.

Tunnel Vision: Are We Focused on the Process or the Outcome? Cargo cult styled capacity planning is a method of capacity planning that is characterized by the ritual inclusion of processes or policies that serve no real purpose.

Capacity Planning Self-Assessment: Do You Get “it/IT?” You need to fully understand what creates value for your organization–otherwise there is nothing to get!

Need to help your CEO think strategic and enable them to respond more rapidly to changing conditions. Think strategic: help your CIO impact the P&L statement. Think strategic: help your CRO (Chief Risk Officer) more accurately manage business risk.

Key take aways/action items:

• Resolve yourself to never mention “queuing theory” again. Change the conversation to be business oriented.
• Understand the links between business metrics and IT–develop links to your work.
• Improve communications about your efforts…and results.
• Re-assess current processes to remove waste and increase agility.
• Begin mentoring of others that need capacity planning capabilities.

TeamQuest Technology Summit 2011 is off and running with an introduction by our very own Vernon Johnson (follow him on Twitter at @vjthree). The events this week promise to be packed full of discussions around virtualization, cloud computing, and just how capacity management can guarantee a successful implementation of a variety of emerging technologies.

TeamQuest CEO, Jerred Ruble, takes the podium to let the audience know that 2011 is a also the 20th anniversary of TeamQuest Corporation’s existence. We are proud to say that our company has been profitable for all of these 20 years and we have no one more�to thank more than our customers!

Mr. Ruble also announced that Verizon Wireless has been named the recipient of the TeamQuest IT Service Optimization (ITSO) Award for TeamQuest customers�adopting ITSO best practices and leveraging TeamQuest Performance Software in their operations.

In looking to the future, TeamQuest is focusing on virtualized and cloud environments, scalable and extensible Capacity Management Information System (CMIS), and more automated capacity management.

In just one short week, TTS 2011 will be kicking off in sunny Tucson, AZ. We wish everyone could could attend in person, but we understand schedules don’t always allow for that. We will be live tweeting and blogging throughout the event for your viewing pleasure. So make sure to check back here or subscribe to our ITSO Blog RSS feed. Also, tweets will be flowing from a variety of sources including @TeamQuest_Corp. Be sure to follow the hashtag #TTS2011!

We hope you find the information presented at TTS 2011 to be informative. As always, let us know by leaving a comment here or contacting us on Twitter.