I just got word from one of our developers, who have been testing our portal/CMS
product using WebStress. Turns out that with a combo of Apache/Tomcat/JBoss and
50 concurrent users (i.e. no “think time”) we consistently get an average page
rendering time of about 30-40ms, and this is on quite moderate hardware. Each
page has a bunch of portlets on it which displays texts, forums, images, etc.
I.e. a normal portal/website.

This is pretty good, but remember this: while the recent benchmarks of PetStore
was done with architectures that were optimized for performance, our
architecture is created entirely focusing on good design patterns and
maintainability. Plus, everything in our system is an AOP object (e.g.
Server,Site,Page,Forum,Message,Thread,Link,etc.etc., even a persistence manager
is an AOP object), so it’s pretty complex (yet simple). No corners have been cut
with regard to the design of our product. [Random Thoughts]

There is no substitute for good design (or excuse not to do it). “We must
strive to reach that simplicity that lies beyond sophistication.” – John Gardner
(courtesy of Russ).

Make it run, make it right, make it fast. I find that the third rule is often
not an issue if the first two have been followed.

Great stuff Rickard, now when can we get our hands on this monster you’ve
created? 🙂