A major role for IT staffs is timely support of new business initiatives. IT staffs don't want to be the bottleneck in the application deployment process, yet they can t afford to put a new application into the network and have it fail to perform. Few have unlimited resources to staff a specialized capacity planning group for application deployment; and even fewer (if any) can afford to throw away corporate dollars and over-build their network just in case.

This Catch-22 describes a very real problem most IT staffs face. The modeling-based capacity planning solutions commonly pitched have missed the mark, both in the technology and in its implementation. While occasional successes are possible by applying brute force, achieving a consistent, repeatable process that can demonstrate an ongoing ROI is not.

As part of Trident's service portfolio, we review the specific goals and functions of rapid application deployment (RAD) and how network capacity planning fits in the process. We discuss the ROI based on just-in-time network design and how capacity planning promises to deliver this. Then we look at the technological and organizational hurdles that have caused so many vendors' solutions to fail. Finally, we take an enlightened look at a well-defined solution that supports the goals of RAD and avoids the all-too-well-known pitfalls