Application performance management and testing
Application performance management and testing is a constant battle, and software teams need to plan how they will tackle these tasks from the onset of development. This section reviews key practices and tools that help developers distribute workloads, test for potential failures, automate application monitoring and resolve performance issues quickly.
Top Stories
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Tip
22 Jul 2022
10 application performance metrics and how to measure them
You've deployed your application, now what? To keep your application performing well, you need to track various metrics. Take a look at these ten critical KPIs. Continue Reading
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Tip
08 Nov 2021
The distributed monolith: What it is and how to escape it
Do you suspect that your attempt at microservices left you with distributed monolith application design? There are some telltale signs -- and, thankfully, a few ways to escape it. Continue Reading
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Tip
15 Sep 2021
Service mesh vs. API gateway: Where, why and how to use them
While they're both central to inter-application communication processes, it's important to understand the fundamental differences between a service mesh and an API gateway. Continue Reading
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Tip
04 Aug 2021
The 4 Golden Signals, and how to put them into practice
There's nothing easy about monitoring distributed systems, but the right metrics can help. Here's how to put the Golden Signals of software reliability to work. Continue Reading
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Feature
27 Jul 2021
Resilient software strategies all developers should know
Failures are unavoidable. However, the right software design and development choices can help minimize their impact, isolate problems and speed recovery times. Continue Reading
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Tip
30 Jun 2021
How to handle typical event-driven architecture failures
Adding events to an architecture can pose plenty of problems. Review some common event-driven architecture failures development teams face, and some strategic fixes for them. Continue Reading
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Feature
22 Jun 2021
To master software design patterns, perspective is everything
Elisabeth Robson and Eric Freeman, authors of 'Head First Design Patterns,' outline their quest to teach software design patterns and show developers the right way to learn them. Continue Reading
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Tip
10 Jun 2021
5 proven patterns for resilient software architecture design
Maintaining a resilient software architecture is a constant battle. Luckily, there are a few design methods that can help teams instill the reliability they desperately need. Continue Reading
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Tip
28 May 2021
The reasons to use (or not use) sidecars in Kubernetes
Sidecar containers provide a great relief to developers who need to manage large clusters of containerized applications at scale. But is it always the right approach? Continue Reading
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News
19 Mar 2021
Sentry adds performance monitoring for React Native, more
Sentry has added support for React Native, Android, Xamarin and Flutter-based apps to its application performance monitoring platform to help developers find and fix bugs. Continue Reading
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Tip
22 Feb 2021
App interface design principles all developers should know
The first step in choosing the right app interface design is to understand the options available to developers. Dive deeper into these popular design concepts and approaches. Continue Reading
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Tip
04 Feb 2021
The basics of monitoring and observability in microservices
We examine how monitoring and observability help development teams keep a distributed architecture from coming unraveled by individual failures and performance bottlenecks. Continue Reading
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Opinion
01 Feb 2021
Microservices design patterns and tools to watch in 2021
Building upon years of momentum, architects are well in the swing of transitioning from the monolith to microservices. Here are three of the top trends they'll face in 2021. Continue Reading
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Feature
30 Dec 2020
Enterprise application trends that will impact 2021
The past year evoked a wave of new software needs, especially in the wake of COVID-19 and increased needs for availability. Here are some 2020 trends that will take shape in 2021. Continue Reading
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Tip
10 Dec 2020
The CAP theorem, and how it applies to microservices
Learn the fundamentals of the CAP theorem, how it comes into play with microservices and what it means for your distributed architecture design choices. Continue Reading
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Tip
20 Nov 2020
A head-to-head GraphQL vs. REST performance faceoff
Both GraphQL and REST aim to simplify API development processes, but which one is right for your project? Find out by examining this API design style faceoff. Continue Reading
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Tip
06 Nov 2020
Microservices logging best practices every team should know
Creating a log system for distributed microservices is a task much easier said than done. Joydip Kanjilal offers a few best practices to shore up microservices logging processes. Continue Reading
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Tip
07 Oct 2020
A basic overview of micro front ends
Microservices enable independent app-dev teams, asynchronous app updates and precise troubleshooting. If these benefits sound good for your UI, consider a micro front end. Continue Reading
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Tip
16 Sep 2020
A lesson on how to test microservices locally
Microservices are small pieces of a big picture, so they're difficult to test in isolation. Use these tips to run unit and integration tests locally on microservices. Continue Reading
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Tip
14 Sep 2020
MVC vs. MVVM: 2 architecture patterns for modularity
Both the MVC and MVVM design patterns separate front-end and back-end application components, but each one has unique methods of interface manipulation and abstraction. Continue Reading
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Tip
17 Aug 2020
Styles, protocols and methods of microservices communication
As application architectures grow in complexity, messaging must become a priority. Review the two types of microservices communication and the primary protocols involved. Continue Reading
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Tip
30 Jul 2020
Navigate service discovery in a microservices architecture
Microservices move rapidly, making streamlined service discovery a must. Learn more about the specific types of discovery approaches and how to determine a strategy. Continue Reading
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News
15 Jul 2020
New performance monitoring tool alerts developers in real time
New performance monitoring feature in Sentry's error tracking and release integration platform helps developers find and fix performance issues. Continue Reading
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News
07 May 2020
Oracle's Project Leyden uses static images to ease Java pain
Oracle's new Project Leyden introduces static images to help ease long-standing Java language shortcomings such as slow startup times and unwieldy footprints. Continue Reading
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News
29 Apr 2020
Node.js 14 delivers more enterprise-friendly features
Node.js 14 is now available with new features aimed at the demands of enterprise developers, who have increasingly adopted the server-side runtime environment for JavaScript. Continue Reading
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Feature
15 Apr 2020
Microservices availability tips for pandemic's scaling challenge
Surges in app user activity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have forced architects to make immediate decisions around service availability and performance, especially for distributed architectures. Continue Reading
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Tip
30 Mar 2020
5 key software testability characteristics
How do you design the software components for comprehensive testing? Start with these fundamentals of software testability -- from mocks and stubs to infrastructure-as-code. Continue Reading
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Feature
23 Mar 2020
14 top mobile app KPIs that advance development
No matter its purpose, a mobile application must meet expectations from users and corporate stakeholders. Here are 14 mobile app KPIs that you need to know. Continue Reading
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Tip
03 Mar 2020
Consider these key microservices caching strategies
Data caching is a key part of ensuring microservices have easy access to the data they need. We review a few key caching strategies. Continue Reading
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Tip
28 Feb 2020
3 microservices resiliency patterns for better reliability
The flipside of microservices agility is the resiliency you can lose from service distribution. Here are some microservices resiliency patterns that can keep your services available and reliable. Continue Reading
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Tip
26 Feb 2020
Fundamental patterns for service discovery in microservices
Service discovery is a huge part of managing a microservices-based application. We examine helpful service discovery patterns developers can use for clean service interaction. Continue Reading
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Tip
19 Feb 2020
5 big microservices pitfalls to avoid during migration
Too many development teams make these failure-inducing mistakes during a switch to microservices. Learn where things go wrong, and the best ways to avoid problems. Continue Reading
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Feature
10 Feb 2020
Popular microservices testing tools developers should know about
Testing microservices gets messy as services are independent and communicate often. Here are tests necessary for microservices, and popular tools developers use to perform them. Continue Reading
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Tip
07 Feb 2020
Rethinking change control in software engineering
The traditional method of application change control won't fly in a modern, DevOps environment. Here's how we can rethink the process in a time where rapid app development rules. Continue Reading
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Tip
03 Feb 2020
A few fundamental microservices team structure strategies
A microservices architecture can be quite a culture shock to unprepared enterprises. Here's how you can prepare your team to make microservices part of development processes. Continue Reading
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Photo Story
31 Dec 2019
5 predictions for 2020 software architecture trends
The past decade brought big changes to app development and management. Now, our contributors predict what the biggest software architecture trends of 2020 will be. Continue Reading
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Tip
18 Dec 2019
How to test microservices for functionality and compliance
If you're new to microservices testing practices, understand that traditional techniques won't work anymore. We examine how to approach four critical microservices tests. Continue Reading
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Tip
17 Dec 2019
Use these 8 tools to deploy microservices on Azure
IT teams deploy microservices to quickly build and scale apps, but it can get complicated fast. Check out these Microsoft Azure tools and best practices to get started the right way. Continue Reading
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Guide
12 Dec 2019
A guide to open source technology in application development
The open source community continuously adapts to address the latest application development and deployment needs of organizations large and small. What can these tools do for you? Continue Reading
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Tip
18 Nov 2019
Scaling microservices takes conceptual skills and good tooling
Independent scalability is a major benefit of microservices, and simultaneously a complex and challenging thing to implement. Scale microservices with a focus on users' priorities. Continue Reading
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Tip
29 Oct 2019
The right (and wrong) way to think about code refactoring
Code refactoring keeps code clean, sharp and efficient -- ideally without changing any of its functionality. Learn how to refactor code without interrupting your deployment pipeline. Continue Reading
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Tip
03 Oct 2019
Compare microservices deployment patterns for best strategy
To solve pesky deployment woes, match your app to a microservices deployment pattern, like single service instance per host, multiple service instances per host or even serverless. Continue Reading
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Tip
25 Sep 2019
These 6 microservices architecture design patterns solve problems
Navigate the benefits and drawbacks of standard architecture design patterns that aim to diminish microservices deployment and performance miseries. Continue Reading
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Tip
13 Sep 2019
Invoke these 3 commandments of microservice applications
Unlock a microservice app's potential with a three-pillared approach centered on a thorough component directory, absolute service flexibility and reliable backwards compatibility. Continue Reading
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Tip
20 Aug 2019
Software reliability engineering practices for distributed apps
Learn how these four software reliability engineering concepts -- inventories, monitoring, observability and Pareto analysis -- can aid API management and application performance. Continue Reading
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Tip
19 Aug 2019
What semantic monitoring can and can't do for microservices
Semantic monitoring can identify microservices performance problems, catch bugs in transactions and ensure uptime. But when you test in production, you'd better know what you're doing. Continue Reading
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Tip
02 Feb 2017
How to keep microservices performance from going south
Microservices can streamline development, but at what cost? Kurt Marko discusses the potential performance impacts and how to implement proper microservices performance management. Continue Reading