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Capacity Planning and Performance Modeling

"Capacity Planning and Performance Modeling: From Mainframes to Client-Server Systems "

Daniel A. Menascé, George Mason University
Virgilio A. F. Almeida, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil
Larry W, Dowdy , Vanderbilt University

Prentice-Hall, 1994

Book Features:

• Example Based: each chapter begins with a motivating problem. The solution to each problem is ''discovered" by reasoning from first principles and intuition. Only then is the theory necessary to generalize the solution presented.
• Software Tools: provided with the book is a disk that contains the source code for programs to solve multiple class open and closed queuing network models with load dependent servers. In addition, an educational version of QSolver/1, a PC based capacity planning software package is provided.

Book Reviews:

"When even the most educated guesswork doesn't cut it anymore, Capacity Planning and Performance Modeling is the book to turn to. The first beauty of this book is that the mathematical modeling is neither obscure nor loose-fitting. Throughout the authors tell you how they've related the models to the real world and why the fit should be pretty accurate. More remarkable, they explain it all clearly, without assuming that the readers have extraordinary theoretical knowledge of computer performance issues." --- Wlater Zintz (UnixWorld's Open Computing, July 1994)

"They (the authors) understand that performance evaluation has evolved to a set of critical standard practices. They understand that the older methods must extend to sprawling networks of machines, and they go to considerable effort to demonstrate how this works. They understand that the standard practices of today are the foundation for continued improvement of models, algorithms, and theory for the world of business process that will be the focus of information technology in the future." --- Peter J. Denning, former President of the ACM (from the foreword).

"The book is intended for use as a textbook or for further individual professional development. It would be valuable for professionals working in the area of capacity planning, performance analysis, and system management." --- Capacity Management Review, September 1994.