Well, the irony of this is painful.
I went with 1&1 as the hosting location for my personal domains, including WebPerformance.org.
One of the things that I preach there is the use of compression.
Guess what? 1&1 doesn’t use Web compression on their servers.
Ugh.
Tags: compress, compression, HTTP, it, LAN, Om, One, performance, personal, pr, server, web, Web compression, WebPerformance.Org
If you ask 15 different people what the phrase Web performance means to them, you will get 30 different answers. Like all things in this technological age, the definition is in the eye of the beholder. To the Marketing person, it is delivering content to the correct audience in a manner that converts visitors into customers. To the business leader, it is the ability of a Web site to deliver on a certain revenue goal, while managing costs and creating shareholder/investor value.
For IT audiences, the mere mention of the phrase will spark a debate that would frighten the UN Security Council. Is it the Network? The Web server? The designers? The application? What is making the Web site slow?
So, what is Web performance? It is everything mentioned above, and more. Working in this industry for nine years, I have heard all facets of the debate. And all of the above positions will appear in every organization with a Web site to varying degrees.
In this ongoing series, I will examine various facets of Web performance, from the statistical measures used to truly analyze Web performance data, to the concepts that drive the evolution of a company from “Hey, we really need to know how fast our Web page loads” to “We need to accurately correlate the performance of our site to traffic volumes and revenue generation”.
Defining Web performance is much harder than it seems. It’s simplest metrics are tied into the basic concepts of speed and success rate (availability). These concepts have been around a very long time, and are understood all the way up to the highest levels of any organization.
However, this very simple state is one that very few companies manage to evolve away from. It is the lowest common denominator in Web performance, and only provides a mere scraping of the data that is available within every company.
As a company evolves and matures in its view toward Web performance, the focus shifts away from the basic data, and begins to focus on the more abstract concepts of reliability and consistency. These force organizations to step away from the aggregated and simplistic approach of speed and availability, to a place where the user experience component of performance is factored into the equation.
After tackling consistency and reliability, the final step is toward performance optimization. This is a holistic approach to Web performance, a place where speed and availability data are only one component of an integrated whole. Companies at this strata are usually generating their own performance dashboards with combinations of data sources that correlate disparate data sources in a way that provides a clear and concise view not only of the performance of their Web site, but also of the health of their entire online business.
During this series, I will refer to data and information very frequently. In today’s world, even after nearly a decade of using Web performance tools and services, most firms only rely on data. All that matters is that the measurements arrive.
The smartest companies move to the next level and take that data and turn it into information, ideas that can shape the way that they design their Web site, service their customers, and view themselves against the entire population of Internet businesses.
This series will not be a technical HOWTO on making your site faster. I cover a lot of that ground in another of my Web sites. It will also not be data heavy; again, I point you to another of my Web sites if you want only the numbers.
What this series will do is lead you through the minefield of Web performance ideas, so that when you are asked what you think Web performance is, you can present the person asking the question with a clear, concise answer.
The next article in this series will focus on Web performance measures: why and when you use them, and how to present them to a non-technical audience.
Tags: business, conversion, delivery, it, marketing, Web Performance, WebPerformance.Org
A few years ago, I wrote an article ablout how to best set up Web server cache-control messages to take advantage of this free form of content distribution. Until now, it has only existed as a PDF file.
Last night, I sent a copy to Kevin Burton of TailRank in response to some of his recent musings around making TailRank faster by sending explicit caching messages in his server responses. His response to the PDF was “make it an HTML file”.
You can now find the Caching for Performance article at Webperformance.org, in the Caching Library.
Use it. Live it.
Technorati Tags: Web+performance, Caching, Cache-control, Apache, Performance+tuning
Tags: apache, blog, cache-control, caching, content, control, distribution, HTML, HTTP, it, LAN, live, Om, performance, server, Technorati, web, Web server, Web+performance, WebPerformance.Org
A few years ago, I wrote an article on how GZIP compression improved Web performance. Don Marti at the Linux Journal was a great editor, and eventually, the article ended up in the online version of the Magazine.
At the time, I used Ian Holsman’s webperf.org (now renamed ITScales) to capture the data. Now that I have built my own Web performance monitoring network, I thought I would repeat the experiment.
You can see the comparative results at these locations:
After I have collected a lot more data, I will be re-visiting the article and commenting on the state of compression technology on the Internet.
If you would like to suggest a site to measure, please leave a comment.
Technorati Tags: HTTP, Web+Compression, Web+performance, GrabPERF, study, HTTP+compression
Tags: compress, compression, data, Google, GrabPERF, GrabPERF.org, gzip, HTML, HTTP, IM, Internet, IP, it, LAN, leave, Linux, Om, online, performance, PHP, pr, Technorati, web, Web Performance, Web+performance, WebPerformance.Org
I just had a look at the list of domains that I own and realize that
I want/need to clean house. There are 3 domains that I want to keep,
and 9 that I am looking to get rid of.
Domains that I want to unload include:
Currently asking $2,000 each for webperformance.org, webcaching.org, searchindex.org, performanceindex.org, and webcompression.org, and anything I can get for the others.
Technorati Tags: listing, Web performance, domains for sale, for sale, domain name
Tags: caching, compress, compression, current, deflate, HTTP, it, Om, performance, pr, search, Technorati, the other, web, Web Performance, WebPerformance.Org
UPDATE: We have a new home:
http://newestindustry.wordpress.com/
Stop by and check us out.
UPDATE: The shutdown date has been set.NOVEMBER 22, 2005
Ok folks, this is it.
Last Call.
We have reached a point where the cost of the cable modem that connects my servers to the Internet has to be slashed.
Without the semi-static IP that I have had for the last 18 months, all of my Web services and applications will have to be terminated.
What does this mean to you?
GrabPERF will be shutting down.
Pierzchala.com will be shutting down.
WebPerformance.org will be shutting down.
And this blog will be shutting down.
I hate to do this, because it has been a great ride, but until we can get back on our feet financially, it’s a step that has to be taken.
I will be keeping this site up until November 30, 2005 November 22, 2005. After that, I will be shutting down all access.
This is not a plea for donations. This is a bare cold fact.
Heat the house or host my Web servers.
It’s a pretty easy call.
Tags: app, application, blog, cable modem, GrabPERF, GrabPERF.org, HTTP, IE, Internet, IP, it, Newest Industry, Om, performance, PHP, pr, server, update, web, Web server, Web servers, WebPerformance.Org, wordpress
Ok, I forgot to list all of the domains for sale in my post last night.
Buy these domains. Make me an offer I can’t refuse.
Please.
Tags: caching, compress, compression, deflate, HTTP, Om, performance, PHP, pr, search, web, WebPerformance.Org
Ok folks. We sat down and did an evaluation of the finances today…and we’re broke.
Very broke.
So, I have had to buckle down and put some of my high-value domains up for sale. Right now, they are up on Sedo.
Yes, webperformance.org is up for sale. Unfortunately, I need the money more than I need the domain right now.
And frankly, these are the only things of value I have to sell right now.
Let your friends know.
Tags: HTTP, IE, IM, media, Om, One, performance, web, WebPerformance.Org
American Red Cross:
I know you have other things on your plate right now, but you seem to have a DNS problem.
redcross.org. 86400 IN NS arcdns3.redcross.org. redcross.org. 86400 IN NS arcdns2.redcross.org. redcross.org. 86400 IN NS arcdns1.redcross.org. ;; Received 172 bytes from 204.74.112.1#53(TLD1.ULTRADNS.NET) in 46 ms redcross.org. 3600 IN A 162.6.217.197 redcross.org. 3600 IN NS arcdns2.redcross.org. redcross.org. 3600 IN NS arcdns1.redcross.org. ;; Received 122 bytes from 162.6.217.142#53(arcdns2.redcross.org) in 33 ms
The name server arcdns3.redcross.org (162.6.90.141) either doesn’t exist, or is broken. Unfortunately, the Top-Level DNS servers still have it on file.
The site is working great [here]. Except for the DNS issues.
Keep up the good work.
Tags: CDN, cro, data, DNS, GrabPERF, HTTP, Issues, it, Om, performance, PHP, pr, server, web, Web Performance, WebPerformance.Org
I started gathering data on a number of large MSM Web sites, and created an index, similar to what I created for Search sites.
Check it out!
Technorati: GrabPERF, Web Performance, Web Performance Measurement, Web Performance Monitoring, msm, mainstream media
IceRocket: GrabPERF, Web Performance, Web Performance Measurement, Web Performance Monitoring, msm, mainstream media
Tags: blog, data, GrabPERF, HTTP, IM, it, measurement, media, Om, online, performance, performance measurement, PHP, search, Technorati, web, Web Performance, Web performance measurement, Web+performance, WebPerformance.Org
