Project Performance Testing: How to get a 360º picture of your IT systems

Remember the time when Twitter crashed because of the famous Ellen DeGeneres’ Oscar selfie? It went so viral that one of the world’s biggest websites was offline for a while! Or when eBay, one of the most popular marketplaces in the world, was offline for a whole day and then had to compensate the users? Issues like this appear because of problems with the server, lack of backups or when the IT infrastructure is simply not prepared for high load. Today we are going to speak about Project Performance Testing as a tool to get a 360º picture of your IT infrastructure and a detailed list of recommendations on how to improve it.

Project Performance Testing is a comprehensive technical performance audit of an online store that shows the strengths and weaknesses of the project comprising server side, code and database bottlenecks and basic security issues. Forewarned is forearmed - this is exactly why Performance Investigation is carried out.

Signs of low performance

What should a good Performance Testing include

Project Performance Testing is a complex service that includes several steps and 360º check of your IT infrastructure. Let’s see how we perform a Complex Project Performance Investigation in ASAP Lab.

Evaluation of the current state of the project

we set business goals and detect the issues that affect the website’s performance. This includes a compulsory load testing to determine the optimal and maximum number of users visiting the website simultaneously.

Server check

we analyze logs and study the project’s history to detect weaknesses in server configurations, check PHP and SQL settings, and run a stress test to get the complete picture and understand the server’s performance in different situations.

Basic security check

which includes PHP, SQL, and web server check, as well as a research for any outdated software, open ports, files and directories that can be compromised.

Code and SQL server bottlenecks check

that helps to find factors slowing down the database.

Complex infrastructure check

Includes research on email, DNS, FTP, and other systems that are involved in the project.

Recommendations on how to improve the project

we look for ways to optimize the store and increase conversion. This includes best practices in eCommerce, DevOps and combined experience of our 1000+ clients from 170 countries.

The second load testing.

After the changes recommended by ASAP Lab are made we will do a free second load testing to see how the metrics have improved.

What is next?

Based on the collected data, we generate a report and a set of recommendations for optimizing the work of the project. You will get a "complete picture of the world" in order to understand exactly what and how to improve in order to have a tangible effect in terms of productivity and stability of the project.

List of server settings that require optimization or fine-tuning
Report on the server and website performance
List of bottlenecks in the project code and sql queries
Results of basic security testing
List of expert recommendations for performance optimization

Now you have a roadmap to a higher website productivity, it’s time to make changes to the project. Following the received recommendations you can either fix the detected issues by yourself, or hire ASAP Lab team to fully optimize your project.

How often do you need a server performance audit?

It’s best to fully check your systems at least once a year or after every major software update. For seasonal businesses it’s recommended to order an audit at least a month before the start of the active sales season. This way, you’ll have enough time to optimize your project and make it ready for all the online shoppers.

Aside from that, you might need an audit in following cases:

Server maintenance is unreasonably expensive and you want to change it
You’re going to launch on a new market
You’re considering switching to new more powerful hardware

More and more visitors associate the speed of your website and its overall performance with the quality of your brand in general. So take good care of your IT systems to be ahead of the game and never have outages! Competitors never sleep :)

Order Complex Project Performance Investigation