2.4 Concluding Thoughts

I hope this chapter has provided some theoretical and practical insight into understanding and managing workflows. I've discussed means of understanding the workload impressed upon a system, as well as some means of enforcing limits upon that workload. I have also talked about benchmarks as means of comparing the performance of systems under standardized workloads.

Parts of this chapter may seem almost childlike in their simplicity. As we progress into the performance analysis of dynamic systems, we are presented with simple things that are actually complex. Part of this book's purpose is to examine some of the simplifications , so that the reasons behind become apparent. This exploration lets you make better decisions about where to direct your tuning efforts.