Performance optimization Intro
Three things to check the first time your site slows down
A slowdown feels sudden, but the list of causes is short. Before you pay for a bigger server, there are three things to check in order.
Technote
When traffic starts to grow
The problems a site meets the moment it starts working — slowdowns, outages and cost spikes arriving together, and what to fix first.
8 articles
Performance optimization Intro
What caching actually does, layer by layer
Caching is not one switch. It is several layers with different jobs, and stacking them blindly is how you end up with a page that refuses to update.
Performance optimization Practical
Minimum preparation for a sudden rush of traffic
Opportunity arrives unannounced. A few things done in advance are what stand between a crowd and a blank error page.
Servers & infrastructure Practical
Knowing your site is down before your customers do
If a customer tells you the site is down, you are already late. Deciding what to watch and how to be alerted takes about half an hour.
Performance optimization Practical
What happens as your database quietly grows
A database grows far faster than your content does — and most of what accumulates is by-product, not the writing you actually did.
Development workflow Practical
The point at which you need a staging site
Editing straight on the live site works only while the site is small. Once those thirty seconds touch revenue and trust, the rules change.
Security Practical
Designing access when the team starts to grow
If everyone is an administrator, nobody is. Roles exist not to inconvenience people but to limit how far a mistake can travel.
Development workflow Advanced
A growth checklist for the next six months
What a site that has started working needs in place so the next stretch does not break it — checked across four areas.