SMC Journal

Load Testing With Parallel

Parallel is a new SaaS load testing solution. What makes it different from other load testing products?
Episode: 117Air Date: 03/28/2023Title: Load testing with ParallelGUEST:  Yev SpektorLINKEDIN PROFILE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yevgeniyspektor/
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Show Notes
Scott Moore interviews Yev Spektor, the founder of Parallel
https://www.prl.dev/  Topics covered:
Tell me about you and your background as it relates to load testing?  What drove you to starting Parallel?  Who is Parallel for - which persona (developer, perf tester, software engineers, non-technical users)?  Explain briefly how the product works (demo) The real value in any load testing product is in the test results and analysis as this is what should lead you to the underlying reason for performance bottlenecks. What does Parallel provide in the way of analysis and how does it help to locate and pinpoint performance issues?  What is the vision for the product (roadmap)?

What New in LoadRunner 2023?

Guest David McLeish shares all the new features and updates of LoadRunner 2023.
Episode: 116Air Date: 03/21/2023Title: What's New With LoadRunner 2023GUEST: David McLeishLINKEDIN PROFILE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-mcleish-58a9b62/
 
To see this episode in video format: https://youtu.be/3w32Mc5HqSk
 
Support the SMC Journal. Buy Me A Coffee: https://bit.ly/smcjournalcoffee
Show Notes
The latest features and updates. They include
Virtual User Days (Flex Users) are back
Citrix Protocol Updates
Steadybit integration for additional resilience platforms
Updates to Prometheus integration (HTTPS)
We also talk about why the footprint in browser-based protocols like TruClient are so large.
Sponsors
This podcast is sponsored by Micro Focus and Opentext. Performance matters. Did you know that Opentext has the largest community of practitioners? Join the community at https://community.microfocus.com/adtd/b/sws-alm 
Performance Engineering Page:
https://www.microfocus.com/en-us/portfolio/performance-engineering/overview
Performance Playlist (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlUdEXI83_XoQrAsCj2A92v5AmXqVfoIO

Real User Monitoring and Website Performance

How does Real User Monitoring metrics provide? How important is a high score in Google Lighthouse to website performance?
Episode: 115Air Date: 03/14/2023Title: Real User Monitoring and Website PerformanceGUEST: Erwin HofmanLINKEDIN PROFILE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erwinhofman/
For a video version of this episode: https://smcjournal.com/episode/real-user-monitoring-and-website-performance/
Support the SMC Journal. Buy Me A Coffee: https://bit.ly/smcjournalcoffee
Show Notes
Website: https://www.rumvision.com/Erwin Hofman: https://www.erwinhofman.com/
 

LoadRunner Gremlin Integration

Learn the value of combining load testing and resilience experiments with LoadRunner and Gremlin, and where the product is going next.
Episode: 114 Air Date: 03/07/2023 Title: Load Testing and Chaos Engineering Integration GUEST: Jeff Ni LINKEDIN PROFILE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffnickoloff/
For a video version of this episode: https://smcjournal.com/episode/loadrunner-gremlin-integration/
Support the SMC Journal. Buy Me A Coffee: https://bit.ly/smcjournalcoffee
Show Notes
Get started: https://www.gremlin.com/pricing/?ref=nav
Integration news: https://www.gremlin.com/blog/the-dual-approach-in-scaling-chaos-engineering-and-performance-engineering/
Check out this other episode on with Micro Focus.
Sponsors
This podcast is sponsored by Micro Focus and LoadRunner solutions. Performance matters. Did you know that LoadRunner solutions have the largest community of practitioners? Join the community at https://community.microfocus.com/adtd/b/sws-alm 
Performance Engineering The LoadRunner Family Page:
https://www.microfocus.com/en-us/portfolio/performance-engineering/overview
Performance Playlist (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlUdEXI83_XoQrAsCj2A92v5AmXqVfoIO

Test Automation In Video Games With Gamedriver

How does the video games industry test software? How do you automate test cases for video game engines? Find out with our guest Shane Evans from Gamedriver.
Episode: 113Air Date: 02/28/2023Title: Test Automation In Video Games With GamedriverGUEST: Shane EvansLINKEDIN PROFILE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neoevans/
For a video version of this episode: https://smcjournal.com/episode/test-automation-in-video-games-with-gamedriver/
Support the SMC Journal. Buy Me A Coffee: https://bit.ly/smcjournalcoffee
Show Notes
Website: https://gamedriver.io/GDC Conference: https://www.gamedriver.io/blog/posts/2022/march/gamedriver-is-going-to-the-game-developers-conference/
Check out this podcast on 2023 Predictions for Systems Engineering.
Sponsors
This podcast is sponsored by Bryte Payment Solutions. They provide merchant services for a wide variety of credit card companies. Take most major credit cards at the lowest rates and fees possible. They help your business generate higher revenue through a variety of payment solutions, including Point Of Sale equipment and custom software. If you take credit cards for your business, you should contact them to see how they can help. Go to https://bryteps.com/ and tell them Scott Moore sent you.

How Does Cilium Improve K8s Performance?

What is Cilium? What is eBPF? How does Cilium improve Kubernetes? Scott Moore talks to Bill Mulligan at Isovalent about what makes Cilium a better choice for network traffic shaping, queuing, and observability than native K8s implementations.
Episode: 112Air Date: 02/23/2023Title: How Does Cilium Improve K8s Performance?GUEST: Bill MulliganLINKEDIN PROFILE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bamulligan/
For a video version of this episode: https://smcjournal.com/episode/how-does-isovalent-cilium-improve-k8s-performance/
Support the SMC Journal. Buy Me A Coffee: https://bit.ly/smcjournalcoffee
Show Notes
Isovalent: https://isovalent.com/Cilium: https://cilium.io/
Performance Testing Cilium Blogs:
https://cilium.io/blog/2023/01/25/hetzner-performance-testing/https://cilium.io/blog/2022/04/12/cilium-standalone-L4LB-XDP/https://cilium.io/blog/2021/05/11/cni-benchmark/
Hubble: https://github.com/cilium/hubbleIs It Observable: https://isitobservable.io/observability/service-mesh/what-are-cilium-hubble
Check out this previous podcast about our Kubecon 2022 Takeaways!
Sponsors
This podcast is sponsored by Micro Focus and LoadRunner solutions. Performance matters. Did you know that LoadRunner solutions have the largest community of practitioners? Join the community at https://community.microfocus.com/adtd/b/sws-alm 
Performance Engineering The LoadRunner Family Page:
https://www.microfocus.com/en-us/portfolio/performance-engineering/overview
Performance Playlist (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlUdEXI83_XoQrAsCj2A92v5AmXqVfoIO

Next Generation Observability With Groundcover

Groundcover is a new Observability platform that uses eBPF to provide for metrics, logs, and traces. Is it the next big thing? Scott Moore interviews Co-founder and CEO Shahar Azulay on this episide.
Episode: 111Air Date: 02/14/2023Title: Next Generation Observability With GroundcoverGUEST: Shahar AzulayLINKEDIN PROFILE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shahar-azulay-54156bb4/
For a video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/W0-ap680wZE
Support the SMC Journal. Buy Me A Coffee: https://bit.ly/smcjournalcoffee
Show Notes
https://www.forbes.com/sites/janakirammsv/2023/01/09/meet-groundcoverthe-startup-thats-building-the-next-gen-observability-stack/?sh=b585fb5780cd
Main Website: https://www.groundcover.com/
Caretta: https://github.com/groundcover-com/caretta
Check out this other podcast episode about observability platforms.
Sponsors
This podcast is sponsored by Bryte Payment Solutions. They provide merchant services for a wide variety of credit card companies. Take most major credit cards at the lowest rates and fees possible. They help your business generate higher revenue through a variety of payment solutions, including Point Of Sale equipment and custom software. If you take credit cards for your business, you should contact them to see how they can help. Go to https://bryteps.com/ and tell them Scott Moore sent you.

The Gartner® Performance Engineering Report

The Gartner® Innovation Insight for Performance Engineering Report
Episode: 110Air Date: 02/07/2023Title: The Gartner® Performance Engineering Report
For a video version of this episode: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ulaxkS4v2EQ 
Support the SMC Journal. Buy Me A Coffee: https://bit.ly/smcjournalcoffee
Show Notes
Scott Moore reviews the 2023 Gartner® Innovation Insight for Performance Engineering ReportBy Joachim Herschmann, Keith Guttridge, Thomas Murphy
Register / Download URL: https://bit.ly/3iR6vri
Takeaways:
There is STILL a gross lack of performance engineering skills in the industry. Companies must invest in their team to educate them and skill them up to tackle hard problems
Developers can’t always address the performance issues
Performance testing can’t always address performance issues and tools alone are not the answer
Continuous Performance is the only way to go forward in todays modern application development lifecycle
Gartner now acknowledges performance engineering exists. Now can we start sitting at the big boy table? We should be the CIO’s best friend. We want what they want: Fast, Resilient, Efficient (low cost), and Low Risk. Why aren’t we the rock stars instead of the developers?
“Performance efficiency is one of the most critical operational characteristics of applications that directly reflect software quality and ensure positive user experiences.”
Sponsors
This podcast is sponsored by Micro Focus and LoadRunner solutions. Performance matters. Did you know that LoadRunner solutions have the largest community of practitioners? Join the community at https://community.microfocus.com/adtd/b/sws-alm 
Performance Engineering The LoadRunner Family Page:
https://www.microfocus.com/en-us/portfolio/performance-engineering/overview
Performance Playlist (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlUdEXI83_XoQrAsCj2A92v5AmXqVfoIO

Software Engineering: Performance or Security?

In software engineering, what is the balance performance and security? Do you have to choose one over the other? Is highly secure software slower? Ron Foster from Saltworks Security is on this episode to discuss this topic.
Episode: 109Air Date: 01/31/2023Title: Software Engineering. Performance or Security?GUEST: Ron Foster. Client Principal, SaltworksLINKEDIN PROFILE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rfoster/
For a video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/HPXNu_onX9A
Support the SMC Journal. Buy Me A Coffee: https://bit.ly/smcjournalcoffee
Show Notes
Saltworks: https://www.saltworks.io/
Video demoing MFA automation with TruClient in WebInspect:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3hH7J_TFZk

Can you automate application reliability?

How can you automate Application Reliability?
Episode: 108Air Date: 01/24/2023Title: Can You Automate Application Reliability?GUEST: Harjot Gill. Co-founder and CEO of FluxNinjaLINKEDIN PROFILE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harjotsgill/
How can you automate a response to a sudden spike in load? Can you prepare ahead of time for a point load situation like Black Friday? Aperture is an open source flow control and site reliability management platform from FluxNinja developed to address this problem. Scott Moore interviews Harjot Gill of FluxNinja to talk about how they solve this with flow control.
“Aperture detects service-level objective (SLO) violations and deploys active counter-measures such as concurrency limits to protect against cascading failures.”
https://www.fluxninja.com/
Github Repository: https://github.com/fluxninja/aperture
Techcrunch Article: https://techcrunch.com/sponsor/fluxninja/fluxninja-announces-aperture-bringing-reliability-to-your-web-scale-apps-with-flow-control/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEl4SMo3KNo (short video explaining Aperture)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m070bAvrDHM – Demo video
 
For the video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/zfxY6-Tfazk
Sponsors
This podcast is sponsored by Micro Focus and LoadRunner solutions. Performance matters. Did you know that LoadRunner solutions have the largest community of practitioners? Join the community at https://community.microfocus.com/adtd/b/sws-alm 
Performance Engineering The LoadRunner Family Page:
https://www.microfocus.com/en-us/portfolio/performance-engineering/overview
Performance Playlist (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlUdEXI83_XoQrAsCj2A92v5AmXqVfoIO