Summary

This chapter covered the differing performance concerns of a few major web site types, as summarized in Table 5.1. We consider pervasive device support a special case of these web sites, so it is not listed separately in Table 5.1. However, be sure to consider the impact of pervasive requests as required when designing or testing any web sites.

Of course, many other types of web sites exist, all with their own performance profiles. The larger lesson is that your performance test must fit your web site. In the next few chapters, we discuss how to plan and execute a relevant performance test for your site.

Table 5.1. Comparing Performance Characteristics of Several Web Site Types

Web Site Type	User Pressure	Throughput Dependent	Response Time Requirements	Caching Potential
Financial	High	High	High	Medium
B2B	High	Medium	Medium	Low
e-Commerce	High	High	High	High
Portals	High	Medium	Medium	High
Information	Low	High	High	High