How many projects have you worked on that forgot to test size, volume, and conduct load balancing in a newly converted environment? I have worked on a few of those types of projects. I know in a data warehousing effort, we always check any servers and databases, based on load, and query performance.
Most project managers like to check the target environment very close to project launch. To do this, the project would probably require the following:
- Size the target platform - include data size, query performance, and user interface performance.
- Use a performance testing product - Some companies use products to help test the new environment on all these aspects. The product may shoot off thousands of transactions and measure performance and capacity.
- Add in at least a two year growth - you may want to consider a five year growth for applications that you know will be there in five years.
- Resize environment - add in new processors, disk space, memory, etc.
- Test it again - measuring performance at least one more time. Most of the projects I have worked on do full blown performance testing at least 3 times.
Besides the server and database infrastructure, consider the "wholistic" view of the new environment. Consider the following:
- Does it have a reporting environment? If so you may need to size that separately.
- Is there any on-going programming (ETL type) that need to be sized and tested for performance? For example, does this new environment require data from MDM? If so, then those interfaces, in fact ALL the interfaces, will need to be considered in performance testing for the infrastructure.
