Mastering Web Application Performance: Throughput vs. Latency Explained

Boost Your Web Application’s Efficiency with Proven Strategies and Cloud Provider Best Practices

In the realm of web applications, understanding the concepts of throughput and latency is crucial for designing systems that perform well under varying loads. These two metrics, while often related, address different aspects of performance and can significantly impact user experience. This chapter will define throughput and latency, compare the two, explore best practices for improving both, and discuss design patterns and options available on major cloud providers such as AWS, GCP, and Azure.

Throughput

Throughput is the amount of data processed by a system or component in a given amount of time. It is typically measured in requests per second (RPS), transactions per second (TPS), or bits per second (bps).

• High Throughput: Indicates a system can handle a large number of requests or process a significant amount of data within a specific timeframe.
• Low Throughput: Indicates a system processes fewer requests or less data in the same timeframe.

Throughput reflects the capacity of a system to handle concurrent requests. For example, an…