This unique and fresh webinar will take a looks at the process foundation of Performance Engineering and various solution blueprints organizations are using at each step of the process to deliver effective Performance Engineering.

We’ll take a look at blueprints from HPE, CA, IBM, Micro Focus, Open Source, etc. You may be surprised to discover how well these solutions may work together and you may already have them in-house. We’ll also show example blueprints some larger organizations are using. Goal is to provide you with speaking points and models to build a vision with your leadership, showing how much of this can be accomplished by stitching existing capabilities together, focusing on value and results.

Expert Panelists:

Within this one-hour webinar, we will conduct 5 live polls to tailor the discussion to our audience. In addition, our expert panelists have prepared comments to share (with supporting illustrations and real-world examples).

Todd DeCapua
Senior Director of Technology and Product Innovation
Corporation Service Company

• Passion with a purpose in all walks of life
• Leader and founder of several Vivit Worldwide chapters, special interest groups and webinars
• Dad, wildlife conservationist and outdoor sports enthusiast
• Technical and business expertise and recognized domain authority in Mobile, Agile, DevOps, Performance Engineering and Internet of Things

You are encouraged to check out the replay.  Replay, Deck, and Q&A of webinar available here.

Poll Results:

As we typically do…polling plays a big role in our webinars, so we can sense where our audience is in their journey, and slightly tailor the message and stories best to the participants.

In poll #1, “Are you working to implement Performance Engineering capabilities, but struggling to understand with all the products and solutions? [Yes / No]” Based on the below response, we felt this higher than expected; as from industry feedback, we expected >70% struggling to understand how to put together a Performance Engineering Solution set.

In poll #2, “Do you have a foundational SDLC that you leverage throughout your organization? [Yes / No]” Participants responded 63% Yes, which seemed to meet the expectations we had coming into this webinar.

In poll #3, “When thinking about Performance Engineering, do you have defined enterprise standards? [Yes / No]” This is in-line with one of the reasons why we felt this webinar necessary, and to start the conversation, so we can shift this from 33% not having a defined enterprise standard for Performance Engineering.

In poll #4, “Have you mapped tools to your foundation SDLC? [Yes / No]” It becomes interesting, looking at results from Poll #2 (63% Yes to having a Foundational SDLC) and contrasting that with only 38% mapping tools to that foundation SDLC. Wonder why this would be?

If you missed this webinar, check the Replay, Deck, and Q&A of webinar available here.

2016 Calendar of Vivit Worldwide Performance Engineering Special Interest Group Webinars:

For our previous Vivit Worldwide Performance Engineering Special Interest Group sessions, here are wrap-up blogs for each monthly meeting.

(You can also go ahead and add our future meetings to your calendar as well!)

1. Performance Engineering SIG 2016 Kickoff [12 Jan 2016]

2. Performance Engineering in Agile [9 Feb 2016]

3. Performance Engineering in a Center of Excellence [8 Mar 2016]

4. Performance Engineering and Value to the Business [12 Apr 2016]

5. Performance Engineering as a Competitive Differentiator [11 May 2016]

6. Performance Engineering and Your End User [14 Jun 2016]

7. Performance Engineering and Value to Technology [12 Jul 2016]

8. Performance Engineering and Proven Practices [9 Aug 2016]

9. Performance Engineering Tools [11 Oct 2016]

10. Performance Engineering Education [13 Sep 2016]

11. Performance Engineering Solution Overview [8 Nov 2016]

12. Performance Engineering Core Capabilities [Petar] 13 Dec 2016

Capacity and Performance impacts every aspect of technology, both old and new. As technology changes, the demand and responsibilities of capacity and performance professionals grow. The imPACt 2016 conference will provide the professional development, networking and access to help you succeed in your profession. Find the insight you need for the latest technological developments on internet, mobile, performance & capacity, cloud and technology, all in one place.

1] PANEL: IoT: Performance Engineering Implications [Session #522] https://edas.info/p22005#S1569530828

Panel discussion of impact of IOT to performance engineering: Topics discussed: What is IOT Can existing networks Handle IOT – will SDN help the matter, What we need to do to modify in today’s performance engineering practices What tools would you need for this – are current tools sufficient What kind of Monitoring is available today and what would be needed What vendors are contesting this market segment from the performance engineering/APM standpoint use cases: SMART APPLIANCES (Thermostats, Refrigerators, TVs). Panelists include Andreas Grabner, Dynatrace; Anoush Najarian, MathWorks; Vess Bakalov, SevOne; Todd DeCapua, CSC Global.

2] PANEL: Skill Prerequisites of Performance Engineering [Session #532] https://edas.info/p22005#S1569530836

In June 2016, a Performance Engineering Summit occurred in Silicon Valley, hosted by HP Enterprise. Practitioners, Academics, Vendors, and Industry Groups were all represented. One of our work items was to identify entry criteria for training an effective performance engineer. Since the Summit, we’ve built and refined this list of skills to help us communicate it with seekers, employers, recruiters, and colleges. As participants in this initiative, we would like to present our findings, talk about what we’ll do with them next, and gather feedback from the larger Performance Engineering community. Please come collaborate with us on explaining what we do, how we do it, and talk about growing the next generation of performance engineers. Panelists include: Andreas Grabner, Dynatrace; Daniel Menasce, George Mason Univ.; Alexander Podelko, Oracle; Todd DeCapua, CSC Global.

3] INVITED: Avoiding Costs, Delays and Failed Releases with Lifecycle Virtualization [Session #555] https://edas.info/p22005#S1569530855

Complexity of composite applications, how they are hosted and supported, along with expectations of users continue to accelerate in change and increase in risk. The costs and delays associated with the development, testing and operations of applications continues to increase; and the potential for highly integrated failures in production is even higher now. Learn how the capabilities of Lifecycle Virtualization: User Virtualization, Service Virtualization, Network Virtualization and Data Virtualization works to help you overcome these challenges today. Presented by Todd DeCapua, CSC Global.

The curriculum is based on projects happening now inside Fortune 500 companies, and designed to accelerate learning through collaboration, which using events and other mentorship programs provide participants with practical industry insight and guidance.

My employer CSC [Corporation Service Company] is a Partner of Zip Code Wilmington and Top Workplace ’10, ’11, ’12, ’13, ’14, ’15, ’16.

From the discussions at this open house, participants in the Zip Code Wilmington program and others were interested in learning from my diverse and exciting career to date. I was impressed with the level of engagement, solid questions and genuine interest in understanding more about opportunities with the CSC Digital Brand Services technology and product innovation teams.

During the 2-hour collaboration I had with students, I was also introduced to several other local leaders in the technology community supporting this program, along with three (3) key Zip Code Wilmington leaders [Melanie Augustin, Head of School; Tariq Hook, Director of Education; Sam Hanna, Community Marketing Manager] whom are all making a difference for our community.

I was encouraged that present participants in the Zip Code Wilmington program along with alumni, leadership and my peers; all recognized the need to have an understanding of Effective Performance Engineering, and the value of this throughout the businesses and our communities to drive the real value we are all seeking to achieve.

Looking forward to doing more with Zip Code Wilmington and other programs like this around the world. Please add a comment to this blog if you have an opportunity, which we should consider, so we can increase awareness and education.

To learn more:
Zip Code Wilmington
1105 N. Market Street
Wilmington, DE 19801
ZipCodeWilmington.com

In August of 2015, I drafted the “Predictions for load testing in 2016” which was then published and distributed. It is fun to see how many of these capabilities have and are being implemented within many organizations today. One of the items I covered was Cloud Load Testing.

There has been much speculation as to why these capabilities have been embraced—and haven’t been.  I am here to debunk the top 5 myths of Cloud Load Testing in this blog.

1. Security

Many have used the myth of security as a reason for not using Cloud Load Testing. This continues to be a myth because of the variety of ways which you can configure rules and ports these days. This fact, along with the configuration of what pieces sit where, enables all of your data to stay contained within your organization (if you like).

There are too many variables to cover in this single post, but I see this as a myth. Once you start down the whiteboard discussion, it becomes clear very quickly how this can be accomplished simply. It is more than likely that existing security rules, which are already established, will enable you to leverage Cloud Load Testing, so you can begin using this capability.

One of the areas within security that becomes interesting is that of “equipment on-premise” or “down the street” and a colleague of mine Malcolm Isaacs covered this nicely in a recent piece he published titled, “Keep your applications fit with cloud load testing” which I encourage you to check out.

2. Cost

Cloud Load Testing is a ‘new’ concept, which often has people asking, “Why do we need to spend money on this now?” In addition, once you have a full understanding of the capability and the value it delivers to your organization, you will need to provide further evidence of this value– given it is a new ‘line item’.

When evaluating the costs of how to enable proactive assurance of knowing your technology will work when it needs to for your end user, how does one evaluate this? Often, when speaking with decision makers at organization, they are looking at the cost of downtime. At the minimum, this is the cost associated with having a large group of people finding and fixing a problem for a long period of time. This is often a huge number.

How do you evaluate costs vs. value of investments you make in the proactive assurance for your end users that your technology will work when they want to leverage your products and/or services? Just for rudimentary example, what if you could make a $100,000 investment and get a $700,000 return; a 7x return on your investment, what would you do?

Perhaps you saw the article on TechBeacon.com titled, “Avoid website outages on big retail days with cloud testing — No black eyes on Black Friday” where I covered several of these with real-world examples that should be interesting for you.

3. Scale

As events, promotions and activities continue to grow in awareness and scale, so does the need to ensure they work as designed when demand is highest. This is where Cloud Load Testing comes in…yet, some have shared a myth of concern on scale.

I believe this is an ‘early myth’ as working across the variety of Cloud Load Testing solutions available in the market, it is true…some are not able to scale or be stable under scale; yet the majority of them provide for a stable solution that delivers a lot of value.

Of these, the leading product “StormRunner Load” I have seen spin up to 1.5 million virtual users in <11 minutes, delivering results at scale that is often unseen. In addition, the results that are delivered near real-time from an analytics perspectives enables end users to make informed decisions either manually or automated, all while running at scale.

Thinking of scale, and the how to; reminds me of a recent Gallop blog titled, “Creating a Cloud Load Testing Strategy for your Enterprise” which may be something for you to read and share.

4. Alternatives

So, you think Cloud Load Testing is not for you, and are trying to find what alternatives are out there that will give you the same results. You are not along, finding alternatives is certainly a myth that has been explored by many, and some are getting limited results. Having and simple, scalable and smart solution is what you need…and frankly, what many Cloud Load Testing solutions are striving to provide.

Although in your quest to find alternatives, one usually will try:

a] Building load testing capabilities to be able to run a higher number of transactions per second (TPS), so to then be able to observe the impact to the infrastructure within your environment under these loads.

b] Leveraging load testing capabilities to run as high as you can give the number of virtual users, then using some architecture and scale/tuning assumptions, extrapolate mathematically at what is believe to be needed to handle the higher loads.

c] Believe that your application and infrastructure has been architected to be elastic, enabling it to scale endlessly based on the needs of your business and demands from your end user, so that scaling and capacity are no longer a concern

Knowing about alternatives and the variety of tools and capabilities can be a daunting task. However, I want to share a recent article titled, “Why you need cloud load testing, and how to find the right tools — Chance of rain” to simplify this process for you.

5. Results

For those of us as practitioners or senior leaders, we do not need to buy another tool…simply to have another license to pay for, another set of hardware to support it, another group of engineers to be enabled and maintain it, etc…we need results.

So, for Cloud Load Testing, there are several results we can count on. Some of these are similar to those of proven enterprise grade capabilities you are and will continue to use, others are a bit different, all are focusing on business value and results to help your end users.

Below are a few results I recommend. As you are learning and exploring about the capabilities available to you, I suggest you ensure the ‘basic results’ you need to have, to maximize the value from your investment.

a] Predictive Analytics to be able to detect bottlenecks earlier in the development cycle.

b] Network Virtualization Integration to be able to quickly view and understanding the impact that network conditions have on your application performance. Learn how you can make code level fixes now, enabling your end users to have an optimized experience.

c] Navigation Breakdown providing an at- a-glance view along with deep-dive breakdown of client side performance.

d] Dynamically Add VUsers during your live test run and build-in SLA’s to end test if application and infrastructure performance is not meeting those criteria.

With results in mind, nothing is better than learning “How Cloud Load Testing helps you deliver amazing software” and enable you to meet and exceed the needs of your end users, so you can achieve success within your business.

In conclusion, I have shared the ‘5 Myths of Cloud Load Testing Debunked’ and provided you with insights into how and why this capability can be used within your organization today. I have also included links to key assets for you to share. Please let me know what questions you have, and the concerns being expressed within your organization, as I believe Cloud Load Testing plays a critical role within ensuring production success for your business and end users.

Introduction:

I really enjoyed this conversation and learned a lot about my cousins experience on his deployment. While we were speaking, he shared a few experiences and examples with me, which stuck with me and I thought to briefly share in this introduction. From this discussion, I was able to quickly and clearly see the need for Effective Performance Engineering in everything that is happening in theater and the connected nature of our battlefield today.

Here is Arnold Schwarzenegger with the troops. What a better way to represent performance with our US Army, as his Twitter profile says, “Former Mr. Olympia, Conan, Terminator, and Governor of California. I killed the Predator. I told you I’d be back.” This unit is based out of California.

An office with a view. As a deployed US Army soldier you find your office where you stand. Of course, many of us as ‘road warriors’ can relate to this, rarely do we find ourselves sitting on the ramp of a CH-47 helicopter. While you are dangling a few hundred feet off the ground, communications and the performance of the networks these devices count on are critical, and your life depends on it.

Ask anyone on the wrong side of a drone and they will tell you the impact of the performance. As these devices are dependent on communications for all systems of navigation, systems and weapons (and more); enabling a lot of unique capabilities, the network and application performance is something that organizations are working to build in.

Interview:

Q1: How do you find the network connectivity while you are out in the field?
A1: Network connectivity is based primarily on the host nation infrastructure. Kuwait is more modern than the unstable countries in the region. At expeditionary bases like Camp Buehring, contracts with local vendors allow us to use Wi-Fi in our housing units. For cell phone communication, people either use a Wi-Fi to cellular device warmly referred to as a puck. American Cell phone companies for the most part allow service members to unlock their phones in situations where they will deploy. There are several Telecom companies in Kuwait that provide sims ranging $15-25, much of our personal communications are through these plans. It’s as simple as pulling your American sim card out, and throwing in a Kuwaiti or Iraqi sim card. In remote locations in Iraq and Afghanistan you are at the mercy of the quality of the cell phone signal, which for the most part isn’t bad in built-up areas.

Q2: What are some of your favorite apps you use, and a bit about their performance, being deployed in a desert?
A2: In reference to popular apps in theater, I’m using a IPhone 4S, Apple has added a lot of new features to its OS, however, they have come at a price; the phone operates noticeably slower and lacks agility Well excluding the new Pokémon game that is all the rage. People play free games, everyone has a favorite, and mine is two dots.

Communications apps are always in high demand, people love to talk to friends and loved ones via text, voice, or video. Most people are using data plans to accomplish rather than cellular voice plans. It is very convenient. WhatsApp is popular due to its versatility and encryption, it works just like a phone. People who like abbreviated messages enjoy Voxer so they can have texting platform, but also have Walkie Talkie functionality. Facebook Messenger, Tango, KiK, Skype, are also used.

Bandwidth is at a premium though, you are charged per gigabyte so apps with compression are important. One kind of app that’s important for many people here is encrypted VPN apps, people feel more secure about an encrypted connection and moving data around in the US, than over international hubs.

Then there’s Netflix, service members love their Netflix, yeah it eats up data on a cell phone, however even over throttled Wi-Fi connection it’s great. Throttled connections are usually megabit per second pipes between 1.5Mbps to 6Mbps… but you never get it running that fast.

From a performance perspective, anything that kills my mobile devices battery, or apps with bloated code is unfavorable. If it takes too long to startup they usually are not useful in the field. Anything in the background running high clock cycles on my phone’s processor is bad for me, and bad for business. You have your dichotomy of Apple and Android users, people like the simplicity of the IPhone, but not the baggage of ITunes, and EULAs. Android phones have more options on being different with freedom to move data around, something that Apple used to be. People use both, and most of the usual communication apps can be found in both the Apple, and Android fan clubs.

To get to the point, I don’t like Skype, no one uses it, if they would spend as much time focusing on the tech instead of working on popup windows relating to “quality of call metrics”, I think we’d have something good from Skype. Make it small, efficient, versatile, easy to use, and light on load.

Q3: If your technology worked better, what would it mean for you?
A3: Service members hate inefficiency. With all the military systems they encounter and with every system having a defense contract behind it along with high learning curves, training service members to be smarter about their off time. They long for efficiency, and ease of use, “3 clicks away from any solution.” It would mean I could be more connected with my family and friends, the people that mean most to me. Simplicity, and speed, at work and during my off time. There is no one program that can do everything, every application has their limitations, on duty and off. If technology was built on simplicity and speed it would make the most of my time at work, and with my family. This would mean I would be getting the most out of my technology, and life. Both are so intertwined now. It’s good to see competition in the market place for better military systems, and our leadership seem to truly want the best tools at hand for their soldiers.

The below video shares ‘101 Information’ about the DCGS-A application, showing how this is used, and the connected intelligence which it is heavily dependent on networks and high performing integrated systems to function.

Service members are experts at avoiding bureaucracy. The social network in a unit is so close knit and their circle of friends often extends far beyond their unit, many find the most efficient applications very quickly and share information immediately with others! If you want product testers for communications apps use the military they will break it until the developers make it awesome.

At the end of the day many people have reusable energy solutions for charging their phones if they get in a place that is isolated without much power. You have backup batteries that can recharge your mobile devices up to 6+ times, to mobile solar panels you can put in your backpack that are pretty inexpensive, oh yeah I just remembered, the Amazon app is most definitely your friend out here, scratch that, best friend!

Q4: When you use mobile banking in the field, what is your experience like, and do you wished developers and business folk took real world conditions into consideration?
A4: Money is an international commodity, if we aren’t looking at it from that point of view we are doing it wrong. If two banks are competing with apps, the app that can connect with a representative via cellular voice, Data Voice, or text, and have solid encryption are best, or have VPN built in. I have yet to see all those options in a banking app. USAA is the main military bank many service members use, they cater best to the needs of service members and USAA has been doing it for a long time that way. They have great car insurance for every place but California, “jabjab” but their business model is perfectly aligned for Service member’s needs. They have a great app, their fraud detection is amazingly accurate with …. well, I’ve never had to deal with false positives.

Q5: What would it mean for organizations if they built performance in?
A5: I think everyone needs to think globally to get investors involved, when one thinks only locally marketing is very difficult. From this discussion, you can see from the specific examples how some work well and some not, along with what service members are doing to get access to these products and services or simply not using them as a result of poor performance.

Conclusion:

Wow, what a great discussion we had.

1st Lt. Aaron DeCapua concluded the discussion with the below comments.

• Without communications we can’t survive… a lot of it is trial and error and people passing down solutions to the next holders of the torch in the region.
• Like you mentioned in your Effective Performance Engineering book, there are a lot of “Tribe” like behaviors with results of AAR’s and experiences being handed down within the Unit and soldier to soldier.
• We have these things in the Army called After Action Reviews, basically a post mortem. We are great at finding out why things were successful, and what didn’t quite go according to plan, and how it can be improved.

Here is an example of how things work with ‘high performance’ with the “40th CAB Sling Load” where a CH-47 carried a Blackhawk, and you can read about the details here.

In the work we do, I am glad to understand how technology keeps people safe and connected around the world, and hope more people can learn and share about the connected nature of everything…so we can make it better for all end users.

*For more on this story, see the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Blog, or what you can do now to build-in performance, this TechBeacon Article.

*Get your complimentary copy of the O’Reilly, “Effective Performance Engineering” book now.

Disclaimer: The views and personal opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency of the U.S. Government, Pentagon, or the U.S Army.