𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴

In the fast-paced world of startups, it’s easy to focus on features and overlook the foundational aspects of performance and monitoring. However, investing in instrumentation and performance profiling early on can pay significant dividends as you scale.

Last December, we encountered a situation that underscored this importance. One of our assumptions about the possible number of rows per client in a collection was disproven when we faced an unexpectedly large number of records. The query wasn’t optimized for this scenario, leading to increased response times on the API endpoint.

Thanks to our robust instrumentation, we were able to quickly identify the root cause and optimise the query. This allowed us to bring our API response time back to our SLA levels swiftly.

𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀:

1. 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴: Implementing comprehensive instrumentation helps you detect issues early, before they impact users.
2. 𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: Performance profiling ensures your system can handle growth and unexpected loads.
3. 𝗤𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Detailed monitoring data allows for faster diagnosis and resolution of issues, maintaining high service levels.

Don’t wait for a crisis to invest in these areas. Prioritize instrumentation and performance profiling from the start, and you’ll be better equipped to handle the challenges of scaling your product.