As we enter the fifth month of the year I'm sure no one predicted the trouble times we would find ourselves in 2020.
More than a few companies were caught off guard by how COVID-19 impacted traffic to their websites.
The bad news is that some sites completely crashed due to the spike in traffic.
Site Down Due to Performance Issues
Image if Netflix went down for 24 hrs. Netflix usage has gone up a lot amid COVID-19, but how would you feel if you could not access it for 24 hrs due to performance issues?
This is what happened to the stock trading app, Robinhood. Recently, it went down for 24 hours during what was probably one of the stock market's most significant swings—costing their users millions of dollars.
#RobinHood bunch of crooks. Can’t sell my positions… for last hour. Server not working… I’m clearing all of my money out today and closing the account….. pic.twitter.com/r0T5flOn99
— PDXOptions823 (@PDXOptions823) March 2, 2020
The reason for this significant outage?
Due to a surge in traffic, their system struggled with unprecedented load and crashed.
Why Performance Engineering Matters
How many users and how much long-term revenue do you think Robinhood lost because of bad performance?
Wow, it’s crazy @RobinhoodApp has been down on both it’s app and website. Can’t close opened positions. I swear the last time I use this app. This is not the First time this has happened . #robinhood app crash
— Optionslatte (@optionslatte) March 2, 2020
Remember that top software engineering companies considers performance, not as a nice-to-have, but as a crucial feature of their products.
But most engineering teams don't regularly test the performance and scalability of their applications & infrastructure, and most lack the
tools or knowledge to do so correctly.
The good news is that this has only highlighted the importance of, and need for, more performance testing.
But how will your company approach their performance engineering as we move forward? Do you have a plan in place? Do you even know where to start?
PerfGuild 2020 Registration Open
That's why I'm excited to announce the opening of the third annual PerfGuild.
I know what you’re thinking – not another online event :)
But Test Guild’s mission since 2017 has been to deliver the best of the conference experience, filled with actionable testing advice, all online.
This is not a pivot, a fad, or a second option for us — we have only done and will only do online conferences using our proven, guild-style community-driven platform.
You can trust us not to waste your time with a quickly-pulled-together, poorly run, online event.
We’ll be here for you long after all the craziness going on in the world with lockdowns and social distancing is over.
So we're bringing together some of the best experts in the world when it comes to performance testing.
During the conference, you'll learn what works. More importantly, what doesn't work for some of the top experts I could find to help you create or improve your performance engineering efforts.
Check out the Third Annual PerfGuild online conference, where some of the top performance-engineering experts in the industry will teach you what is working right now.
Click here to get your early-bird ticket at 50%. (This offer expires May 5, after which the price will increase.)
At the @testguilds #perfguild20 you'll discover:
- Hybrid load testing using real browsers
- Effective performance engineering
- Leveraging your automation scripts for performance testing
- A code-first approach to performance engineering
- Java performance testing tips
- How to add front-end performance to your SDLC
- How to add distortion and variance to your performance tests to find black swan performance events caused by things like COVID-19
- Much, much more
Why You Should Join This Online Performance Testing Event in 2020
Here's what a few of our past PerfGuild attendees said about their experience:
“Perf Guild has probably been the best training money I have ever spent in my 18 years with Deere and 15 years with the DoD.” – Randy Stevenson
“There was a lot of good info provided at a low cost. I'd definitely say its money well spent.”
“The format is great, you've nailed it! I like that I get the social aspect from home.”
Click to learn more
I hope you'll join us at PerfGuild and make the rest of 2020 as performant as possible.