Global Web Site Performance Improvement
Jeffrey Fulmer
For more than a decade, programmers have been refining the art of Web development
while systems administrators have been honing configurations, adding hardware,
and fattening network pipes. Upgrades at peering points and transport backbones
have dramatically improved network performance. Despite all these enhancements,
however, many users still register the same complaint -- "Your site is too slow!"
One source of frustration shared by site administrators is varied perception.
One user may deem performance to be slow while another thinks it's fantastic.
To further complicate this situation, both users may be right. As I'll show
later, your Web site may be both slow and fast. Because few customers contact
your company with thank-you notes after a wonderful Internet experience, however,
your inboxes are more likely to fill with complaints rather than compliments.
Those gripes may incorrectly skew the perception of your Web site's performance
as they darken your boss's view of your administration skills. A comprehensive
picture is necessary to clarify the situation and provide benchmarks against
which to measure future improvements.
To gauge the validity of customer complaints and judge the extent to which
users experience latency, it is necessary to measure your Web site's performance.
To ensure an accurate measurement, multiple benchmarking agents should be positioned
in a manner that reflects your customer base. If you have customers scattered
throughout the globe and a single Perl script taking measurements, then your
data hardly reflects a random customer's experience. If your company has numerous
access points, you may be able to leverage its existing infrastructure to build
a comprehensive model.
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