Overview

The planner brings physical servers, virtual workloads and cloud resources into a shared view, helping teams spot constrained application tiers and imbalances in how resources are allocated or used. Machine learning and predictive analytics support forward-looking capacity decisions rather than leaving teams to rely on current utilization alone.

Its value is strongest where infrastructure spans multiple environments and planning must account for both capacity and cost. The trade-off is a managed implementation: an ITRS representative creates and configures projects, and customers must go through that representative to change project settings.

Key features

Baseline View summarizes infrastructure utilization, while Forward Thinking lets teams model changes and stage scenarios over time. That makes it possible to consider how business or infrastructure changes may affect application performance and capacity needs before committing resources.

Advanced reports can summarize utilization over a chosen period, analyze relationships between metrics, flag unusually high or low server activity and report on storage. These reports, alongside resource-allocation and usage recommendations, help expose problems that a single utilization snapshot can miss.

Cloud-cost tools compare Azure and AWS and support right-sizing, right-buying and other optimization decisions. Collection options include AWS CloudWatch, Geneos, Gateway Hub, vCenter, and file uploads from third-party tools and scripts. AWS collection can include EC2 and RDS properties, disk images, metrics, costs, reserved instances and savings plans, giving cost and capacity views a broader input base.

For AWS access, ITRS recommends customer-provided secure read-only credentials, ideally IAM roles restricted to required read permissions. It says collected data is segregated by customer and project, encrypted with AES and stored in a database dedicated to that customer's data. ITRS also says it is ISO 27001 accredited, undergoes annual external audits and conducts regular independent penetration testing.

Microsoft SSO using SAML 2.0 was added in the March 2026 release; username-and-password sign-in remains supported. Projects are configured during implementation, so this is less suited to teams expecting to adjust project settings independently.

Pricing

Capacity Planner is paid software with custom pricing; ITRS directs customers to an account manager or sales to confirm contracted entitlements. There is no free plan, and a 30-day trial is offered. No seat count, usage quota or renewal term is stated, so organisations should confirm those commercial terms with ITRS before committing.

Support is available to clients with an active maintenance or subscription agreement. Weekend and public-holiday phone support is limited to Premium Service subscribers, a distinction that matters for teams needing out-of-hours assistance.

Platforms

ITRS describes Capacity Planner as a cloud SaaS platform. It is available on web, Windows, Linux, Android and iOS. Its planning spans physical servers, virtual machines, cloud workloads, storage and containers, with demand forecasting, what-if scenarios, synthetic checks and topology maps among its capabilities.

Who it's for

Capacity Planner fits infrastructure and operations teams managing hybrid estates who need to forecast demand, assess application constraints and weigh cloud costs alongside resource requirements. Its scenario stages over time are useful when teams need to compare possible changes rather than just report current conditions.

It is a weaker fit for teams that want self-service project configuration or support outside the coverage of their agreement. The quickstart guide is intended for users whose organisation already has a project set up, reinforcing that implementation is an organisational prerequisite rather than an individual sign-up workflow.

Pros and cons

Pros: A unified view across physical, virtual and cloud resources helps teams plan hybrid capacity in one place.
Pros: Scenario modelling, utilization reporting and cloud-cost recommendations connect future capacity choices with performance and spending.
Pros: Multiple collection routes, including Geneos, vCenter, AWS and file uploads, can bring data from different tools into planning.
Cons: An ITRS representative controls initial project configuration and subsequent project setting changes, limiting customer autonomy.
Cons: Custom pricing and the absence of a free plan make cost evaluation dependent on a sales conversation.
Cons: Weekend and public-holiday phone support requires Premium Service, which may not suit teams needing that coverage under a standard agreement.

Alternatives

For a broader comparison, see IT Capacity Management Software.

IBM Capacity Management Analytics is another paid option, with Linux, macOS, self-hosted, web and Windows platforms and a z/OS edition that includes IBM Tivoli Decision Support for z/OS.
Syncsort Capacity Management is a paid option for web and Windows.
Algomox ITMox is a paid, API, self-hosted and web option with custom enterprise pricing.
Virtana VirtualWisdom is a paid web option.
BMC Helix Continuous Optimization is a paid web option with no free plan.
Kentik Network Capacity Planning has a 30-day free trial and a Pro plan at 2000.00 USD per year for 50 users, billed annually.
Sunbird dcTrack suits buyers seeking DCIM operations, with unlimited users, sites and assets at 19.50 USD per month, billed annually.
FNT Command offers an Asset Inventory plan at 99.00 EUR per month, billed annually, with per-user licensing and location, lifecycle, reporting, role and permission capabilities.

Verdict

Choose ITRS Capacity Planner if your organisation needs hybrid infrastructure forecasting that ties scenario planning to application constraints and cloud costs. Its main advantage is the breadth of visibility and planning in one SaaS platform; its main drawback is dependence on an ITRS representative for project setup and changes, alongside custom pricing. Teams that require independent configuration or a transparent published price should compare alternatives first.

	Cacti	ITRS Capacity Planner
Free plan	Yes	No
Free trial	No	No
Paid from	Free	—
Open source	No	No
Platforms	Linux, self-hosted, Web, Windows	Android, iOS, Linux, Web, Windows
Free plan	Yes	No
Synthetic checks	Yes	Yes
Traffic monitoring	Yes	—
Topology maps	Yes	Yes
Deployment	self_hosted	—

Cacti vs ITRS Capacity Planner

Cacti

ITRS Capacity Planner