Introduction
Network engineers and network managers tend to think of application performance only in terms of speed: their goal is to make the application as fast as possible or, at the very least, as fast as it needs to be. Stability and predictability, however, are two additional factors that contribute to performance. A stable application results in a consistent user experience, meaning that it performs equally well during peak hours and off-peak hours. As its user base grows, even if suddenly (e.g., after a viral marketing campaign), the compute demands will increase. Therefore, a high-performance application should also be designed with predictability in mind. In other words, it should be known in advance how an increased load under various conditions will affect the infrastructure so that the appropriate actions can be taken to avoid performance degradation.
