Talk by Martin Buhr, Founder of Loadzen.com at Devtank on the 31st of January about the importance of load testing your site as a startup, how http://loadzen.com was built and the lessons learned.
14. So what happened?
To Jive.ly:
• Traffic exploded
• Sign-ups exploded
• In-bound links exploded
• Rankings shot up
• People were buzzing
• Free press!
29. Why should I care?
• Your database:
– Shared SQL server
– Unoptimised queries
– Unoptimised schemas
– Unnecessary requests
30. Why should I care?
• Your code:
– Nested nested loops
– Inefficient iterators
– Large in-memory objects
– About a million other bad practices and shortcuts
31. Why should I care?
• Your interface:
– Large images
– On the fly processing
– Slow JavaScript
– Slow web services
32. All of these are exposed and
get exponentially worse the
higher your traffic
36. Oh yeah...
• Your users get your service
• You make the most from your opportunities
• Users spend more on responsive sites
• You improve your bottom line
And best of all:
• You become a better developer
48. Log everything
• Dynamic RPC is hard
• Black box code hurts, open up your systems
• When your site breaks (and it will) – you know
why
49. Real-time is awesome
• Event-based dev changes the way you think
• Queues make everything seem scalable
• But they introduce their own problems!
– Queue -> Socket -> Browser is a killer on your
system
– Flow control and timing can be issues
50. UI: Make it simple, stupid
• If your UI sucks, your code is useless
• It’s not someone else’s problem
• If it makes your users life easier, it’s worth it.
• Always think – can I make it simpler?
51. Always think scale
• Don’t build for it, but think about it
– Cache your interface
– Use a CDN
– Make requests quick: think async
– Make sure your database is fast
– Use the right tool for the job!
52. Pragmatism pays off
• Don’t pick tech because it’s hot
• Pick it because it solves your problem:
– Elegantly
– Efficiently
• Architect for extensibility
– You’ll deal with it sooner or later
54. Be inquisitive
• Talk to your users
• Love them (not too much!)
• They are the single most important thing to
your company, react.
– Even if you can’t fix it