Performance Optimization
The best software applications go beyond allowing the users to do their work; they deliver fast, responsive experiences that don't waste the user's time.
Optimize Your Software Performance
In the world of software, the term "performance optimization" is often associated with maximizing an application's speed. While this is undoubtedly true, proper optimization requires a balance of multiple, often conflicting, parameters.
At SitePen, we believe that there is a point at which many software systems, especially user-facing ones, are fast enough. In most cases, an application is fast enough if it is waiting on the user versus the user waiting on it. Anything more is ultimately a waste of resources and not true optimization. Additionally, focusing purely on the application's speed can compromise other performance parameters, such as memory usage and power consumption.
Proper system optimization requires a strong foundational understanding of what the system will be used for. A data analysis application used by a small team of specialists needs to be optimized in a very different way than an eCommerce site with thousands or millions of potential users.
Why Develop with SitePen
The team at SitePen has experience with applications that have a wide variety of performance requirements. As we work with you to document the system's needs, we will identify critical performance constraints such as the number of potential users, the hosting infrastructure's capabilities, and the ideal level of responsiveness that the system should give.
Our engineering team combines these performance constraints with all of the other requirements to synthesize a holistic system architecture that allows the software to be written clearly and efficiently. Internal quality controls are used throughout the design process to ensure that the system will meet your expectations without being burdened by over-engineered elements that can unnecessarily slow down development velocity.
Software Optimization Benefits
Optimized software systems offer a pleasant user experience while minimizing operating costs and maintenance complexity.
Improved Application Performance
Improving application performance is the most common area of system optimization work. Users waiting for a system to process a request cannot add value to the process, which is both inefficient and frustrating. It can be tempting to address these issues by increasing the hosting infrastructure's power, but this often yields suboptimal results and can be very expensive.
Our team approaches the challenge of improving performance before the first line of code is even written. An efficient system design will often lead to systems that never encounter performance issues at all. When a bottleneck does occur, our engineers make extensive use of performance analysis tools to pinpoint the root cause of the degradation and address the underlying cause.
Reduced Operating Costs
Better Return on Investment (ROI)
Performance optimization has two primary influences on a system's ROI. One the most noticeable effects is on long-term costs. An optimized system is a good steward of the resources that are made available to it. These systems meet their users' expectations for speed and responsiveness while minimizing the processing time, memory, and storage that they require. Less obvious but equally important is the short-term effect that performance optimization has on a project's ROI. Almost any system can be made to go faster or use fewer resources. However, as the system's efficiency increases, it becomes increasingly challenging to find non-trivial gains in these areas. Too much focus on long-term ROI can lead to an excessively over-engineered system whose performance does not justify development costs.
At SitePen, we believe that an application's ideal performance balances the system's responsiveness and resource utilization with the time and effort required to achieve those targets.
Industries We Serve
Among SitePen's greatest strengths is its wide-ranging experience across multiple industries. We have worked with some of the most notable names in numerous markets, with each engagement serving to refine our ability to address each enterprise's individual needs. Among the industries that we have worked within are:
- Financial services
- Healthcare
- Hospitality
- Public Safety
Choosing the Right Performance Optimization Team
The right performance optimization team for any project must have two characteristics - it must be skilled enough to achieve the speed and responsiveness that users require and disciplined enough to avoid wasteful over-optimization.
Today's software systems are so complicated that it can be difficult to meet users' expectations for responsiveness. The development team must start by identifying what the users' expectations and needs truly are. It is critical to quantify the speed required to allow users to efficiently move through each workflow and ensure those requirements are met via automated testing.
One of the most challenging things that many software engineers face is defining "good enough." The best engineers are continually pushing themselves and their code to be more efficient. While this is an excellent trait, it can lead to over-engineered solutions whose development time does not justify the performance benefits. A disciplined optimization team is aware of these tendencies and has controls in place to prevent these over-optimizations.
