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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Alastair Cooke Paul Kirvan Robert McFarlane Bob Plankers Robert Sheldon Dan Sullivan


EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Erin Harris


CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Sky Croswell James Miles


SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Jenn Ste. Marie


ART DIRECTOR Ron X. Dulong


SENIOR DESIGNERS Jessica Lee


Matthew Wheeler DESIGNERS


Anthony Cielakie Deborah Grisson Sharon McElroy


PRODUCTION MANAGER Peter Grube


PRODUCTION Emily Kudla Deborah Rock


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Prevent Performance Pitfalls with Proper Planning


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T’S not uncommon for IT teams to analyze and correct performance problems as users


report them. However, in an ideal world IT departments would be able to plan ahead. In this issue of Connection, we discuss capacity planning tools and technologies that can help you create an infrastructure that meets the goals of your organization and can help you develop an accurate and reality-based IT budget. Providing affordable, satisfactory


service levels to users is the goal of capacity planning; matching your IT resources to business demands can help you achieve this goal. The first step is to determine service level requirements, like user expectations, for how work gets done. Next you will need to analyze the process load on your IT systems and the current capacity of your infrastructure. Only then can you determine future infrastructure requirements based on forecasted business activity. Modeling and simulating scenarios


can help you predict the response of your infrastructure to changing workloads. If you notice that one of your resources is running at 100% utilization, it raises a flag that anything else running on that system is likely to be less responsive than desired. Keeping basic checks and balances in place goes a long way toward ensuring that your hardware and applications are adequately scalable,


that your systems are configured so you have enough capacity to maintain service levels, and that you will be able to accommodate future demands. Whether you are managing the


network bandwidth needs of your virtual data center, building a virtualization plan for private cloud performance monitoring, or looking for the best Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) system, you’ll need to start with a clear strategy. Learn about the trends affecting IT capacity and the challenges you may face as your workforce goes increasingly mobile. We also share how to cost-effectively


handle data destruction and remain compliant with relevant legislation. And we show you how to weigh the risks associated with losing sensitive data against the resources necessary to implement and maintain a full-disk encryption solution—making it less stressful to give your users access to the tools they need while still maintaining security. Read on to discover how best to optimize your organization’s IT workload, and then give PC Connection a call. We’re ready to help you design, build, and deploy solutions that deliver the experience your users want and the reliability, performance, and security you need.

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