In the GigaOm blog today, Allen Leinwand puts up a monstrous wake-up call to all the hip and cool Web 2.0 companies out there: Your apps run across the Internet [here].

I have spent 9 years investigating, diagnosing, and validating the Web performance issues of companies. I can tear the Web performance data of a site down quickly and ask pointed questions about why certain components of an application are behaving poorly.

But even after 9 years, there are still gimme problems around connection setup that I can seem brilliant about, not because I have some secret knowledge, but because I think of Web performance from the Network UP, not from the Application DOWN.

The subtlety of this difference what Leinwand is alluding to. Fancy applications run across the Internet. The Internet is built on TCP. And TCP is built on-top of a very complex networking infrastructure that is way beyond the realm of my skills.

If you don’t know what packet loss looks like, or how your fancy app presents to clients, or how to ensure that this data is collected and presented to you in a timely way, then you are being exposed to alerting by client calls.

All because you thought the biggest problem was scaling your app, not ensuring that the network it crossed to reach people affected the way it performed. Network geeks created Web 1.0; Web 2.0 seems to think they are mostly unecessary.

Wrong.

Measure your performance. Understand TCP. Hire a network geek (or 20).

Then sleep better at night.

Tags: Allen Leinwand, GigaOm, Internet, networking, performance measurement, TCP, Web 1.0

This post has two underlying reasons for existing: 1) to test out the new MSFT Live Writer Beta; and 2) to talk about a great story that GigaOm pointed us to today.

Om Malik pointed out a story in the Seattle Times today that talked about “Broadband in the Boonies”. Having grown up in the boonies of British Columbia, this immediately got my attention. The story discusses the explosive growth of Internet businesses in the now heavily wired interior of Washington State; the story focuses on the are around Twisp, Winthrop and the Methow Valley.

Until you have been in this area, and I have, you don’t get the possibility of winter isolation. The story talks about how these places are four hours from Seattle; what they neglect to mention is that this is 4 hours in the period between April 15 and October 15, depending on snow.

The direct westerly route to Seattle from these locations passes through the Cascades. Through the extremely high and snowy Cascades.

Samantha and I took a spur of the moment detour through this little part of heaven, pausing a night in a campground in Twisp. Right on the river. When we woke up the next morning, I remembered how much I missed those early morning moments in the mountains.

Twisp is far more isolated than Golden, BC, or any of the other towns that we passed through on our trip this summer. But it is a reminder to us all that place is important. Not because we have to be there, but because it is where we are at home.

I have lived in the Valley. I have lived in Massachusetts. But neither has been home.

And to me, home is worth more than anything.

Technorati Tags: GigaOm, Seattle+Times, Twisp, Winthrop, Methow+Valley, Washington+State, Home, Broadband, Freedom, Om+Malik

Tags: attention, broadband, business, GigaOm, HTTP, IE, IM, Internet, IP, ISP, it, LAN, live, Malik, Massachusetts, media, Om, Om Malik, pr, Technorati, the other

I heard (via TechCrunch and Om Malik and PubSub) that there is some … transition at PubSub.

Now, I have a soft spot in my heart for PubSub, because Bob Wyman was the first person to really notice and appreciate the things I was doing at GrabPERF. I wonder what the future holds for this team.

Frankly, I would agree with Michael Arrington’s comment that PubSub is a likely acquisition target. They do offer a very interesting service, but as a standalone offering, the opportunities are becoming increasingly narrow. As part of a larger Social Web/Web 2.0 firm with a broad range of products, PubSub’s technology could become the glue that holds the various parts together.

Update: Salim Ismail, the now retired CEO, posts his own comments here.

Technorati Tags: PubSub, blog search, Web 2.0, management, acquisition

Tags: Acquisition, app, blog, GigaOm, GrabPERF, HTTP, IE, IM, it, leave, Malik, Om, Om Malik, One, posts, pr, run, search, steps, techcrunch, Technorati, update, web, web 2.0

DNS has been a great hidden mystery to most people who use the Internet regularly. As a Web performance analyst, I see the effects of poorly deployed or improperly maintained DNS services.

Business 2.0 brings this to the rest of you. While sounding a little apocalyptic, it does highlight a problem that those of us who work close to the ground know: DNS is inherently complex and fragile.

Complex in the sense that a single mis-step can bring down a site like Google, or prevent Comcast users from using the Internet (not just the Web). Complex in the sense that the software, even after being re-written from the ground up for BIND 9, requires an incredible level of knowledge and expertise to configure and maintain correctly.

I run caching BIND servers at my home, because I know how easy it is for a DNS outage to take me off the Internet. But the level of knowledge needed to set up that service for 5 computers is incredible.

Services such as UltraDNS and Akamai have made DNS management for large companies a core component of their service offerings. Nominum, home of Paul Mockapetris (father of BIND and DNS), sells a robust and scalable BIND replacement.

The question now is: what next? What could replace the DNS infrastructure? So far I haven’t been hearing a lot of conversation about this, because with DNS, nothing will work.

DNS and name resolution using DNS is integrated into EVERY operating system from phones to supercomputers. So is the question not what will replace DNS, but what will replace BIND?

Don’t know….

Tags: ARIN, business, caching, comcast, conversation, DNS, GigaOm, Google, HTML, HTTP, IE, IM, Internet, it, maintain, Om, One, outage, performance, Perl, pr, run, server, users, web, Web Performance

Wondered why I couldn’t get my GMail for a while…

Om Malik reports on the Google Domain Hijacking.

Om has heard from Google and it looks like they were doing some DNS work. This is one the oldest parts of the working Internet, and it is the most complex and devious thing to get right. Entire companies have been built around managing DNS.

It is almost as though the people who designed DNS made it obtuse and difficult to manage so they could sell their consulting services to the rest of us.

Tags: design, DNS, GigaOm, Google, HTTP, IE, Internet, it, Malik, Om, Om Malik, One

Uh oh! Serious issues are starting to appear with the Google Accelerator, including security/authentication issues.

More here and here and here

C|Net’s take.

geeked’s take.

Geek News Central

Om Malik hits for six by declaring: So What? [here]

Radar has a learned discussion on the GWA’s impact on my other fave whipping post: 37 Signals BackPack. [here]

Tim Yang brings on more 666gle anti-love.

Om Malik hits for the Century by saying: And Why?

BlogNewsChannel has the best wrap-up. [here]

Dan Gillmor chimes in.

Tags: app, ARIN, blog, design, GigaOm, Google, hits, HTML, HTTP, IM, IP, Issues, it, Malik, Om, Om Malik, OReilly, PHP, web

I don’t get the blog fuss that is being raised over Backpack.

Seth is likely bouncing off walls watching this IdeaVirus lift off. This has got early adopter pid IdeaVirus bzzzzzz-agent written all over it.

People…it’s a freakin’ to do list. Get a Hipster PDA and be done with it.

For what it’s worth…more on BackPack here and here and here and here and here and here

Tags: blog, cro, GigaOm, HTML, HTTP, IM, IP, it, live, Om, One, performance, personal, PHP, pr

Om Malik points out a potential threat to blogs: OSX 10.4 “Tiger”. The new Safari that ships with this OS comes with the RSS reader turned on by default!

That upgrade while great for the consumers, could come as a big shocker for those blogs whose feeds are included as part of Safari’s default starter package. Infact it could be the biggest stress test for RSS thus far!

Most RSS readers are set to poll for updates every hour, and imagine when half-a-million Tiger Safari users who start hitting a server at the same time, pulling down RSS updates, because they have not changed the default settings. Server meltdown? Or an unintended denial of service? Apple says that most of the default feeds are going to be major news sites like CNN. New York Times, and LA Times. At this time they are not including any personal blogs as part of the default list. Even for them it is not going to be easy.

As a Web performance geek, I ask you: do you measure and monitor the performance and availability of your blog infrastructure?

Didn’t think so….

Enjoy the Weekend!

Tags: app, Apple, bandwidth, blog, EAD, feeds, GigaOm, HTTP, IM, IP, it, LA Times, Malik, Om, Om Malik, performance, personal, RSS, Safari, server, update, users, web, Web Performance

Juniper just went nuts and made two really key purchases: Peribit Networks and Redline Networks. [here]

Redline is one of those really cool companies that helps companies balance their load, terminate their SSL traffic and intelligently compress content, all in a single appliance. We have a couple of these at work and the Operations team has been very impressed with them.

We also use a lot of Netscreen technology, which Juniper owns.

Looks like we are becoming a Juniper shop…who woulda thunk that 5 years ago?

Tags: app, bank, compress, content, cool, GigaOm, HTTP, IE, IM, IP, it, LAN, Om, One, pr, ssl, traffic

Kottke has a great summary of the links for the Adobomedia/Macrodobe story here.

In my opinion, this quote sums up what is wrong with this merger.

The combination of Adobe and Macromedia strengthens our mission of helping people and organizations communicate better. Through the combination of our powerful development, authoring and collaboration tools – and the complementary functionality of PDF and Flash – we have the opportunity to drive an industry-defining technology platform that delivers compelling, rich content and applications across a wide range of devices and operating systems. [here]

The Adobe and Macromedia Marketing/Press Relations teams need the help of the Bullfighter software.

Flash makes web products that are great for online games…and useless for anything else. Adobe makes a PDF reader, which I can replace with any number of free readers.

I can feel gravity dragging this merger into the pit of despair.

I agree with Om Malik and Russell Beattie — I vote “-1″ on this merger.

More here and here and here and here

Richard Koman says this is a good deal…Flash on Mobile devices merged with a lighter version of Acrobat.

Sramana Mitra says that Apple should buy Adobe now. [here]

Strategize says Adobe everywhere, all the time. [here]

Roland Tanglao quotes Marc Canter, who is happy to see Macromedia disappear.

More from Roland here.

Tags: Acquisition, Acrobat, Adobe, app, Apple, application, ARIN, blog, book, content, cro, EAD, GigaOm, HTML, HTTP, IE, IM, it, LAN, live, Mac, Malik, marketing, media, Om, Om Malik, online, operating systems, opinion, PHP, pr, web