# Executive Overview

**Purpose:** The capacity portrait of the estate. Four distribution donuts answering where capacity sits, over a stacked trend answering how it got there. This is the first screen in the section and the one most likely to end up in a board deck.

![Executive Overview showing four donut charts of storage capacity distribution by classification, device type, data center, and operational category](https://visualoneintelligence.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/voi-docs-exec-overview-distributions.png)

## When to use it

- Answer where the storage estate actually sits, by tier, vendor, site, or purpose
- Show growth over the last twelve months without assembling a spreadsheet
- Establish whether capacity is being bought ahead of consumption or behind it
- Support a refresh or consolidation case with vendor and classification mix

## Key areas and metrics

| Panel | Dimension | Typical values |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Distribution by Classification | Data class and age | `Primary-New`, `Primary-Old`, `Primary-T2`, `File-New`, `File-Old`, `Backup-New`, `Backup-Old` |
| Distribution by Device Type | Vendor platform | Paginated legend covering the collected array and appliance types |
| Distribution by Data Center | Physical site | Your site codes, for example primary, secondary, and DR |
| Distribution by Operational Category | Workload purpose | `Prod`, `File`, `DR` |

- **Select Usable Type.** A header dropdown, set to `Effective` by default, that re-bases every donut. Effective capacity accounts for deduplication and compression; raw does not. Say which basis you are quoting.
- **Per-panel footer.** Each donut carries a collapse control, its dimension name, and a metric label, so panels can be closed down to the ones being presented.
- **Paginated legend.** The device type legend pages when the collected vendor mix exceeds the panel, indicated by a page counter with up and down arrows.

## Storage Capacity Trend

![Storage Capacity Trend stacked bar chart by month with a Total Used line overlay](https://visualoneintelligence.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/voi-docs-exec-overview-capacity-trend.png)

Below the donuts, a stacked bar per month with a **Total Used** line drawn over it. The bars are total capacity, segmented by whichever dimension the grouping dropdown is set to. The line is actual consumption.

Reading the gap between the bar tops and the line is the whole point of the chart. Bars climbing while the line stays flat means capacity was added that consumption has not grown into, which is money spent early. The line rising toward the bar tops means the runway is closing. A step change in the bars usually corresponds to an acquisition or an onboarding event rather than organic growth.

## Common actions

- **Compare the classification donut against the trend.** A large and growing `Backup` share is usually retention policy rather than production demand, and it is the cheapest thing to correct.
- **Read the old against new split.** Classification values carrying an age suffix expose how much of the estate sits on aging hardware, which is the opening line of a refresh case.
- **Switch the grouping dropdown on the trend.** The same twelve months regrouped by data center or device type answers a different question with no extra work.
- **Export or email a panel.** Every panel carries a chart export menu and the row carries an email action.

## Tips

> Fix the Usable Type before screenshotting anything for a deck. Effective and raw capacity can differ by a large multiple on a deduplicating estate, and a chart that does not say which basis it used will be challenged.

## Related screens

[Storage by Group](https://visualoneintelligence.com/docs/storage-by-group/) is the operational equivalent of the donuts, with the underlying detail. [Storage Trends](https://visualoneintelligence.com/docs/storage-trends/) gives the same growth question at any grouping level. [Enterprise Capacity Plan](https://visualoneintelligence.com/docs/storage-capacity-plan/) converts the trend into an exhaustion date.

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Source: https://visualoneintelligence.com/docs/executive-overview/