Determining the required configuration of hardware and software for a network, datacenter or website. There are numerous capacity planning tools on the market used to monitor and analyze the performance of the current hardware and software. However, capacity planning also requires forecasting: what if traffic triples overnight; what if a company merger occurs, etc. As a result of the forecasts, systems can be upgraded to allow for the projected traffic or be made ready for a quick changeover when required. See
capacity-on-demand.