Causes of performance problems

There are two main causes of application performance problems:

  1. Coding problems, where the problem lies in the logic of the application itself. Poorly written application code can result in redundant or unnecessary work being performed by the application. These are examples of coding problems:
    • Inefficient algorithms or algorithms that do not scale well.
    • Invoking remote calls frequently and unnecessarily; unchanging data should be cached rather than repeatedly queried.
    • Inefficient SQL queries. Rather than querying the entire data set and performing operations in the logic layer, it may be far more efficient to do this on the database.

    These tools are designed primarily to help you find and fix coding performance problems.

  2. Configuration problems, where the problem is not related to the application, but is caused by external factors. These factors include hardware issues such as insufficient memory or processing power, network issues such as high latency, low throughput, and connection problems, and software problems such as a poorly tuned databases.

    These tools are not designed primarily to find and fix configuration problems. Work with your system administrator or IT operator to eliminate or rule out configuration problems before starting to diagnose the application itself.

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