"Performance management is changing," declared Ben Rushlo, who runs Keynote Systems' Web performance consulting group, in a great General Session at the 6th International AJAX World RIA Conference & Expo in San Jose, CA. To a packed Imperial Ballroom crowd, Rushlo engaged everyone in the crowded keynote hall. "Complexity is increasing," Rushlo explained, adding that in Keynote's view the application doesn't live in the data center any more, "It lives everywhere - particularly on the "Cloud," which has considerable implications on the performance testing dimension."

"Performance management is changing," declared Ben Rushlo, who runs Keynote Systems' Web performance consulting group, in a great General Session at the 6th International AJAX World RIA Conference & Expo in San Jose, CA. To a packed Imperial Ballroom crowd, Rushlo engaged everyone in the crowded keynote hall.

Complexity is increasing, Rushlo explained, adding that in Keynote's view the application doesn't live in the data center any more, "It lives everywhere - particularly on the "Cloud," which has considerable implications on the performance testing dimension."

Users don't care about code, they care about using applications - we expect the Internet and sites, no matter what technology they use and no matter how "rich" they are, simply to work.

"The Net is now competing on performance with the desktop. It's a challenging environment," said Rushlo.

Keynote Systems recommends that performance management be baked in right from the get-go, at every level of the application cycle. You can't "reverse engineer" performance testing, it's too late if it's not been tested in the development process, during QA, etc.

"You need to build your apps with the user in mind; and you have to test from the Cloud - since that's where your users are."

Every page should take under 2 seconds for a high-speed user.

As enterprises consider deploying next-generation applications and implementation models, re-iterated Rushlo, they need to be aware of how Web performance will be impacted through increased complexity and dependence on the Web.

"Being able to test and monitor Rich Internet Applications, especially as they are deployed in the cloud, will be critical to success."

Rushlo examined and discussed common performance issues that Web developers will face as they look to develop Rich Internet Applications and utilize Cloud Computing. He covered how to combat these issues to minimize potential downfalls and ensure optimal performance through testing and monitoring.

Rushlo is one of the world's leading Internet performance experts, advising Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 companies in the Retail, Automotive, and Financial Services industries, and helping to transform their global sites into high-performing, highly available Web assets that provide excellent customer experiences every time.

Before joining Keynote, Rushlo was a Senior Performance and Capacity Planning Engineer at American Express, where he served as a core member of the team that launched American Express on the Web.