Hardware Sizing: So how big a truck is it?

Just had it happen again. 

Brought in to help scope out an IdM project and found out the hardware platform had already been purchased.  And a quick eyeball of it seems that it is not the right architecture.  Mad clients, bad mojo.

So why does this keep happening?  How can the hardware architecture be bought before the project Analysis and Design phase has even been started? 

Trained originally as a Mechanical Engineer, this occurance drives me nuts – who would ever buy a finished architecture before the formal engineering had been completed?  It is the equivalent of buying a bridge to carry a 1 ton truck, only to find out the truck is 5 tons large.

I know why these things happen; there are two driving reasons.  First is a client wants to understand the total nut they might be facing and what kind of budget they need to ask for.  So a ballpark architecture (like and similar) is guessed. Unfortunately, it now becomes the production architecture design.

The other problem is Identity Management projects are really systems sales: hardware, software, and services. And the sales hardware team is not really interested in sticking around to find out what the final architecture is. They want the deal this quarter and are most happy to sell the customer all they hardware they think they will ever need.

So if you are running an IdM project, ask the vendor for an estimate what the hardware architecture might look like, but only place an order to get you up and running for development.  Once the design and analysis phase is done and you know how big a truck it is going to be, then you can submit a second order that better fits the final solution.

And you don’t have to buy all of the hardware up front. IdM projects usually take 4-6 months to get into production and will grow over the year as more users and applications are added to the system. Not all users will be on the system day one, so purchase enough production hardware to get started, measure the start up loads, order new equipment when you start to reach pre-set load points.

The good news is, due to the longer duration of identity projects, the equipment you might buy 9 months from now to complete your production environment will be cheaper or be a more efficient model.  Plus you save all that maintenance on equipment just humming in the data center.

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