Case Study: Merrill Lynch achieves capacity reconciliation and CPU data normalization with Fortra Vityl Capacity Management

Capacity Management Reporting at Merrill Lynch

Merrill Lynch faced a classic enterprise IT problem: how to reconcile and report total and used CPU capacity across a large, heterogeneous distributed environment so management could get simple, actionable answers by line of business or location. Alla Piltser, manager of capacity planning and performance management, needed a reliable way to compare diverse hardware and OS platforms, cope with frequent server churn, and produce monthly reconciliation reports that executives could consume quickly.

The firm implemented Vityl Capacity Management to normalize CPU power using industry benchmarks (SPEC) and express utilization as CPU Capacity Units (CCUs), sampling 10‑minute intervals and using 95th‑percentile peaks for monthly profiles. The result was accurate capacity reconciliation and normalized data across platforms, searchable visibility by server/application/LOB, identification of under‑utilized servers and specific peak windows (e.g., early‑morning Linux spikes), and better-informed decisions on consolidation, virtualization and new purchases based on effective—not just installed—capacity.

Merrill Lynch

Alla Piltser

Manager