Every organization is different. Some are nimble, some ponderous and slow, some have money to burn, and some won’t see new hardware for years. You need to factor these realities into your plans as capacity planning is only helpful when it is done with enough lead time to fix the discovered future bottlenecks. Some things to consider:
- There are times when money is available in your budget and usually a time by which you have to spend it or lose it. Any purchases you plan for have to hit this window.
- How long does it typically take your company to complete a major purchase once the decision has been made to buy? A new computer that arrives two weeks after the seasonal peak doesn’t do you any good.
- How fast can your vendor build, deliver and install the thing you need? Some things you can have tomorrow; some things take months to build and deliver.
- Do you want to wait for the newest/fastest machine just on the horizon or go with last year’s model now?
- Are there any company-wide spending edicts in place?
- When is the end of the quarter for key vendors? Buying hardware at the end of the quarter (especially the fourth quarter) puts you in a better bargaining position.
With time all things are possible, so the best advice is to start as soon as you can.
The Every Computer Performance Blog 