Performance Monitoring and Capacity Planning

At work we've just finished our first month of live operation for a large new system.  Now that the teething problems are past, we need to be sure we understand how the system performs as it grows. 

I was hunting around for tools like Orca or Cacti which provide graphical presentation of Load vs Capacity trending over time.

This is interesting information, but it is only part of the question. While hunting I came across Adrian Cockroft's Capaciity Planning Blog. He shared an interesting concept he picked up at eBay called time-to-live which is a function of headroom and growth.

What's in a Name

For many years, I've wanted to start my own consulting firm. One hindrance has been the selection of a name. I think maybe I was putting too much thought into the meaning of the name. So, during a recent visit to my accountant, he told me to call it anything and get on with it. Sometimes we need a little push.

So, the name is Mussoorie House.

So what is in a name?

Mussoorie is the name of our house :) In Australia, it's very common for houses to have names on them. When I bought our house, it already had a name. Mussoorie is the Queen of the Hill Stations in the Himalya of India.

Apparently the previous owners of our house was stationed in India at the time they got married and they went to Mussoorie for their honeymoon. I'd say it must have made quite an impression on them.

So what's that go to do with Consulting?

Well - absolutely nothing. But I am trying to convince my wife Deniese to work in my company. She is a bit reluctant. So when she said, "Let's call it Mussoorie House." I of course agreed.

Well, that's where then name come's from. Perhaps my next trip to India will be tax deductable because I'll say we need to visit the namesake of the company :)

Wish me luck!