en·sem·ble (n-smbl) n. A unit or group of complementary parts that contribute to a single effect.

Despite the many frameworks, methodologies, processes and tools available in the sphere of performance engineering (PE), some pain points never seem to go away.

Examples:

- How do I plan for and handle the bursty nature of Web traffic?

- How do I use end users' input to figure out how much headroom I should have in my enterprise application servers?

- Why does a successfully performance-tested application have to act sluggish the moment it is deployed?

- How do I figure out exactly what's slowing things down before I call the tuning experts?

- I spent thousands of dollars adding hardware based on business growth projections. Why did it not make the faintest difference?

The PEA Ensemble is a special interest group that we have created on LinkedIn. We invite you to join and share your experiences, perspectives and ahas on these and other interesting matters in PE. If you would like to become a part of it, please send in a request from the group page. We will review your qualifications and revert. Thank you for your interest.