SW-ISMS-POL-012
Capacity Management Policy
Version
1.0
Owner
CISO
Effective Date
TBD
Review Date
TBD
Capacity Management Policy
1. Purpose
This policy establishes Swedwise AB's approach to planning, monitoring, and managing capacity for IT systems and SaaS services. It ensures adequate resources are available to meet current and future business demands while maintaining performance, availability, and cost-effectiveness.
2. Scope
This policy applies to:
- All IT infrastructure and systems supporting Swedwise operations
- Swedwise Communications SaaS platform (OpenText Exstream, Notifications)
- Kubernetes infrastructure and container orchestration
- Database systems and data storage
- Network bandwidth and connectivity
- Cloud services (Azure, Microsoft 365)
- Supporting services (monitoring, backup, security)
- All staff responsible for system design, operations, and capacity planning
3. Capacity Management Objectives
Swedwise commits to:
- Service Performance: Maintain system performance within acceptable parameters
- Availability: Ensure adequate capacity to meet SLA commitments (99.9% for SaaS services)
- Scalability: Support business growth and seasonal demand variations
- Cost Optimization: Balance capacity investment with business value
- Proactive Planning: Anticipate and address capacity needs before constraints impact service
- Efficiency: Optimize resource utilization and minimize waste
Performance Targets
| System | Performance Metric | Target | Monitoring Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| SaaS Platform | Response time (API) | < [TBD - e.g., 500ms] 95th percentile | Real-time |
| SaaS Platform | Document generation throughput | [TBD - e.g., 1000 docs/hour] | Continuous |
| Database | Query performance | < [TBD - e.g., 200ms] average | Continuous |
| Kubernetes | CPU utilization | < 70% sustained | Every 5 minutes |
| Kubernetes | Memory utilization | < 80% sustained | Every 5 minutes |
| Storage | Disk usage | < 85% capacity | Daily |
| Network | Bandwidth utilization | < 60% sustained | Continuous |
Note: Specific targets are defined based on service requirements and customer SLAs.
4. Management Commitment
Swedwise management commits to:
- Provide adequate budget for capacity planning and infrastructure scaling
- Support proactive capacity investment decisions
- Review capacity performance in management reviews
- Balance capacity costs with service quality and growth needs
- Ensure capacity planning is integrated into service design and planning
- Make timely decisions on capacity expansion when thresholds are approached
5. Policy Statements
5.1 Capacity Planning Approach
Capacity planning is based on:
- Current Utilization: Baseline understanding of existing resource consumption
- Growth Trends: Historical growth patterns and trend analysis
- Business Forecasts: Anticipated customer growth, new services, seasonal patterns
- Performance Requirements: SLA commitments and quality objectives
- Risk Assessment: Identifying capacity-related risks and mitigations
Capacity plans are:
- Developed annually and updated quarterly
- Aligned with business strategy and service roadmaps
- Reviewed and approved by [TBD - CISO/Management Team]
- Integrated with budget planning processes
5.2 Resource Monitoring
All critical systems and services are monitored for capacity metrics:
Infrastructure Monitoring
Compute Resources:
- CPU utilization (per node, per cluster)
- Memory utilization and availability
- Container resource consumption (Kubernetes pods)
- Virtual machine performance
Storage Resources:
- Disk space utilization
- I/O performance (IOPS, throughput)
- Database size and growth rate
- Backup storage consumption
Network Resources:
- Bandwidth utilization (ingress/egress)
- Latency and packet loss
- Connection counts and session limits
- CDN and edge performance
Application Performance:
- Response times and throughput
- Queue depths and processing rates
- Error rates and timeout occurrences
- User concurrency and session counts
Monitoring Tools
Swedwise uses:
- [TBD - e.g., Azure Monitor, Prometheus, Grafana]
- [TBD - e.g., Kubernetes metrics server, cAdvisor]
- [TBD - e.g., Application Insights, custom monitoring]
- [TBD - e.g., Log Analytics, centralized logging]
5.3 Capacity Thresholds and Triggers
Capacity thresholds are defined to trigger actions before service impact:
| Threshold Level | Trigger Point | Required Action | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | < 60% utilization | Routine monitoring | IT Operations |
| Watch | 60-70% utilization | Increased monitoring, trend analysis | IT Operations |
| Warning | 70-80% utilization | Capacity review, plan scaling action | [TBD - Technical Lead] |
| Critical | > 80% utilization | Immediate action, implement scaling | [TBD - CISO + Technical Lead] |
| Emergency | > 90% utilization | Emergency response, escalate to management | CISO + Management |
Specific Thresholds:
- Storage: Warning at 80%, Critical at 90% capacity
- Database: Warning at 70% CPU/Memory sustained for 15 minutes
- Network: Warning at 60% bandwidth sustained for 30 minutes
- SaaS Queue Depth: Critical if processing backlog exceeds [TBD - e.g., 5 minutes]
5.4 Scaling Procedures
Vertical Scaling (Scale Up)
Increase resources of existing systems:
- Add CPU, memory, or storage to virtual machines
- Upgrade database tier or instance size
- Increase cloud service plan limits
When to use:
- Simple, predictable workloads
- Short-term capacity needs
- Limited horizontal scaling capability
Horizontal Scaling (Scale Out)
Add more instances or nodes:
- Kubernetes pod autoscaling
- Database read replicas
- Load balancer backend pool expansion
- Multi-region deployment
When to use:
- Variable or unpredictable demand
- High availability requirements
- Microservices architecture (SaaS platform)
Scaling Decision Criteria
Scaling decisions consider:
- Cost: Impact on operational expenses
- Complexity: Implementation effort and risk
- Timeline: How quickly capacity is needed
- Sustainability: Long-term architectural fit
- Performance: Expected improvement
Scaling actions:
- Are documented with justification
- Follow change management procedures ([TBD - SW-IMS-PRO-XXX])
- Include rollback plans
- Are tested before production implementation where feasible
5.5 SaaS Platform Capacity
Swedwise Communications SaaS platform requires specific capacity management:
Kubernetes Cluster Capacity
Node Sizing:
- Minimum [TBD - e.g., 3] nodes for high availability
- CPU: [TBD - e.g., 4 cores] per node minimum
- Memory: [TBD - e.g., 16GB] per node minimum
- Autoscaling: [TBD - e.g., 3-10] node range
Pod Resource Limits:
- All pods have defined resource requests and limits
- Critical services prioritized with guaranteed QoS
- Resource quotas per namespace to prevent resource hogging
Database Capacity
Sizing:
- [TBD - Database type, e.g., PostgreSQL, SQL Server]
- [TBD - e.g., 4 vCPU, 16GB RAM] minimum for production
- Storage: [TBD - e.g., 500GB] initial, auto-expand enabled
- Connection pool limits: [TBD - e.g., 200] concurrent connections
Growth Planning:
- Estimated growth: [TBD - e.g., 20GB/month per customer]
- Reviewed quarterly against actual growth
- Archival strategy for older data
Multi-Tenancy Considerations
- Resource allocation per customer tenant
- Fair-use policies to prevent resource abuse
- Tenant isolation and noisy neighbor prevention
- Customer capacity planning support
5.6 Demand Management
Capacity is managed through demand management strategies:
Peak Load Management
- Identify peak usage periods (time of day, month-end, seasonal)
- Communicate scheduled maintenance during low-demand windows
- Use queuing and throttling to smooth demand spikes
- Implement caching and optimization to reduce resource consumption
Capacity Reservation
- Reserve headroom for growth: [TBD - e.g., 30%] capacity buffer
- Reserve resources for disaster recovery and failover
- Plan capacity for new customer onboarding
- Account for testing and development environments
Usage Optimization
- Regular performance tuning and optimization
- Identify and eliminate inefficient processes or queries
- Decommission unused or obsolete resources
- Right-size over-provisioned resources
5.7 Data Center and Cloud Capacity
Entiros Data Center (SaaS Infrastructure)
Swedwise SaaS services hosted at Entiros AB data center:
- Contractual Capacity: [TBD - agreed capacity limits in hosting agreement]
- Utilization Monitoring: Regular review of hosting resource consumption
- Expansion Process: [TBD - lead time for capacity increases]
- Capacity Assurance: Data center maintains headroom per SLA
- Escalation: [TBD - contact and escalation process with Entiros]
Azure Cloud Services
Microsoft Azure services for business operations:
- Subscription Limits: Monitor against Azure subscription quotas
- Scaling Policies: Leverage Azure autoscaling capabilities
- Cost Management: Balance performance needs with cloud costs
- Reserved Instances: Use reserved capacity where predictable workloads exist
5.8 Capacity Reporting
Capacity status is reported regularly:
Monthly Capacity Report
Includes:
- Current utilization of critical resources
- Trend analysis (3-month, 12-month)
- Threshold breaches and remediation actions
- Forecast capacity needs (next 3 months, 12 months)
- Recommendations for capacity changes
Recipients: [TBD - CISO, Management Team, Technical Lead]
Quarterly Capacity Review
Formal review includes:
- Actual vs. forecasted demand
- Performance against SLA targets
- Capacity-related incidents or near-misses
- Budget vs. actual capacity spending
- Capacity planning assumptions and adjustments
- Approval of planned capacity investments
Forum: Management review meeting
Real-Time Dashboards
Available to IT Operations:
- Current resource utilization
- Alert status and threshold proximity
- Performance metrics
- Capacity headroom indicators
5.9 Change and Service Design Integration
Capacity management is integrated with:
Change Management
- All changes assessed for capacity impact
- Capacity constraints identified in change risk assessment
- Capacity testing included in change validation
- Post-implementation capacity review
New Service Introduction
- Capacity requirements defined in service design
- Capacity testing during development and staging
- Capacity plan finalized before production launch
- Customer onboarding includes capacity assessment
Incident Management
- Capacity-related incidents tracked and analyzed
- Capacity as potential root cause in investigations
- Capacity remediation in incident resolution
6. Roles and Responsibilities
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)
Assigned to: [TBD]
Responsibilities:
- Overall accountability for capacity management
- Approve capacity plans and significant capacity investments
- Review capacity performance in management reviews
- Ensure adequate capacity budget allocation
- Escalation point for critical capacity issues
Technical Lead / IT Operations Lead
Assigned to: [TBD - internal staff or external partner]
Responsibilities:
- Develop and maintain capacity plans
- Configure and maintain capacity monitoring tools
- Monitor capacity metrics and respond to threshold alerts
- Conduct capacity trend analysis and forecasting
- Implement approved capacity scaling actions
- Prepare capacity reports and recommendations
- Coordinate capacity planning with business planning
- Lead capacity optimization initiatives
Service Owners / Product Owners
Assigned to: [TBD - e.g., SaaS Service Owner, IT Service Manager]
Responsibilities:
- Define performance and capacity requirements for services
- Provide business forecasts for capacity planning
- Approve capacity plans for their services
- Monitor service performance against capacity targets
- Report capacity concerns or constraints
- Participate in capacity reviews
Finance / Management
Responsibilities:
- Approve capacity investment budgets
- Review capacity costs in budget planning
- Balance capacity investment with business priorities
- Support timely capacity decisions to avoid service impact
All Staff
Responsibilities:
- Use systems and resources efficiently
- Report performance issues or degradation
- Cooperate with capacity optimization initiatives
- Follow usage guidelines and fair-use policies
7. Capacity Management Process
Annual Capacity Planning
- Review Current State: Analyze current utilization and performance
- Business Forecasting: Gather input on business growth, new services, customer pipeline
- Trend Analysis: Project future capacity needs based on historical trends
- Risk Assessment: Identify capacity-related risks and constraints
- Capacity Plan: Document capacity requirements and scaling timeline
- Budget Alignment: Align capacity investments with budget planning
- Approval: Management approval of capacity plan and budget
- Implementation: Execute planned capacity enhancements
Ongoing Capacity Monitoring
- Real-Time Monitoring: Continuous monitoring of capacity metrics
- Threshold Alerting: Automated alerts when thresholds are approached
- Triage: IT Operations assesses alerts and determines response
- Action: Implement scaling or optimization as needed
- Documentation: Record capacity actions and outcomes
- Review: Periodic review of monitoring effectiveness
Capacity Incident Response
- Detection: Capacity constraint detected (alert or performance degradation)
- Assessment: Determine impact and urgency
- Immediate Action: Implement emergency scaling or demand management
- Communication: Notify stakeholders if service impact occurs
- Root Cause: Investigate why capacity constraint was reached
- Remediation: Implement permanent capacity solution
- Lessons Learned: Update capacity plans and thresholds
8. Review and Update
This policy is:
- Reviewed at least annually by the CISO
- Updated when significant changes occur in:
- Business growth or service offerings
- Infrastructure architecture or technology platforms
- Service level commitments or performance requirements
- Data center or cloud provider arrangements
- Capacity management tools or processes
- Approved by [TBD - CEO/Management Team]
- Communicated to all relevant staff following updates
9. Related Documents
Policies:
- SW-IMS-POL-001: Integrated Management System Policy
- SW-ISMS-POL-001: Information Security Policy
- SW-IMS-POL-006: Service Continuity Policy
- [TBD - SW-QMS-POL-XXX: Service Level Management Policy]
Procedures:
- [TBD - SW-ISMS-PRO-XXX: Capacity Management Procedure]
- [TBD - SW-IMS-PRO-XXX: Change Management Procedure]
- [TBD - SW-ISMS-PRO-XXX: Incident Management Procedure]
- [TBD - SW-ISMS-PRO-XXX: Performance Monitoring Procedure]
Plans:
- [TBD - Annual Capacity Plan]
- [TBD - SaaS Platform Capacity Plan]
- [TBD - IT Disaster Recovery Plan]
Supporting Documents:
- [TBD - Monthly Capacity Reports]
- [TBD - Capacity Monitoring Dashboard]
- [TBD - Scaling Runbooks]
- [TBD - Data Center Hosting Agreement (Entiros)]
10. Document Control
| Version | Date | Author | Changes | Approved By |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | [TBD] | [TBD - CISO name] | Initial policy creation | [TBD - CEO name] |
Next Review Date: [TBD - typically 12 months from effective date]
Document Classification: Internal
Document Owner: CISO
This policy is approved by Swedwise AB management and is effective from the date specified above. All staff are required to read, understand, and comply with this policy.
Swedwise AB | Make Time For The Good