Load Impact introduces Cloud-based server metrics agent

Load testing makes it possible to see the impact on website, app or API performance from a user perspective as the numbers and geographic locations of users are increased. The new Load Impact Server Metrics Agent provides equally valuable insight but from the server-side perspective, so developers can more easily identify where performance bottlenecks and scalability problems exist in their code or infrastructure, and operations professionals can better allocate resources.

"Pinpointing issues is half the battle of solving them," said Ragnar Lonn, Load Impact founder and CEO. "Server metrics are a pretty standard part of old-school load testing software, which is complex, inflexible, super expensive and requires hardware and specialists to manage and use. The Load Impact Server Metrics agent is really the first of its kind. None of the other new-generation cloud-based load testing services have it today."

The Load Impact Server Metrics Agent monitors CPU, memory, disk space and network usage, and can be extended to monitor any other server function by adding plug-ins compatible with Nagios, the industry standard in IT infrastructure monitoring.

"Our agent software executes the plug-in and then gets performance data back from it, without having to know what the plug-in does," said Lonn. "Then we send the data up to our servers where it's available to users on our Test Results page."

Measurements from the Server Metrics Agent can be correlated with other measurements collected during load tests, and results are made available as a time series that can also be viewed in graph format on the Test Results page, or exported to CSV (comma-separated values) format for use in a spreadsheet.

"Websites, apps and APIs are the business today, and slow business is bad business," said Lonn. "Even minor performance degradation can significantly decrease user loyalty. Be proactive. Find your performance limits before your customers do."