Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This seminal book was the most complete mainstream text on the subject when it was first published in 1991. The reason it remains popular eleven years later (which is an extraordinary life for a computer book) is because it's an applied mathematics book that focuses solely on performance analysis, simulation and measurements. Technology may change at a rapid pace, but the techniques for measuring it do not.
The book is broken into six parts consisting of 36 chapters and ten appendices. Part I is an overview of performance evaluation. I liked the chapter on common mistakes and how to avoid them, and the guidelines for selecting techniques and metrics.
Measurement techniques and tools are the focus of Part II. the eight chapters in this part address the full spectrum, including workload types, characterization techniques, capacity planning and benchmarking, and data presentation. Most of the chapters are generic enough to be timeless. The chapters covering execution monitors and accounting logs are showing their age, but the concepts are still valid. I especially liked the chapters about data presentation and ratios.
Part III is a refresher in statistics and probability, and can safely be skipped if your knowledge and skills are fresh. Part IV delves into experimental design and analysis, while Part V covers simulations. The remaining six chapters of the book, Part VI, are devoted to queuing models.
Note that although the math is clearly explained you need college level skills in order to fully comprehend the techniques presented. I recommend investing in MathCAD or a similar program to make it easy to work the exercises that end each chapter.
This book is one of the handful that will be on your bookshelf for years to come. It's probably one of the most frequently referenced works in the performance analysis, resource management and capacity planning knowledge domains. Because it has well designed exercises at the end of each chapter it's also well suited as an advanced college level text. In my opinion it's essential reading for performance and capacity analysts, and provides an excellent foundation for more specialized books, such as those by Menasce and Almeida, that address topics such as e-commerce performance, web services, etc.
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The Art of Computer Systems Performance Analysis "At last, a welcome and needed text for computer professionals who require practical, ready-to-apply techniques for performance analysis. Highly recommended!" -Dr. Leonard Kleinrock University of California, Los Angeles "An entirely refreshing text which has just the right mixture of theory and real world practice. The book is ideal for both classroom instruction and self-study." -Dr. Raymond L. Pickholtz President, IEEE Communications Society "An extraordinarily comprehensive treatment of both theoretical and practical issues." -Dr. Jeffrey P. Buzen Internationally recognized performance analysis expert ". it is the most thorough book available to date" -Dr. Erol Gelenbe Universit? Ren? Descartes, Paris ". an extraordinary book.. A worthy addition to the bookshelf of any practicing computer or communications engineer" -Dr. Vinton G. Cer??? Chairman, ACM SIGCOMM "This is an unusual object, a textbook that one wants to sit down and peruse. The prose is clear and fluent, but more important, it is witty." -Allison Mankin The Mitre Washington Networking Center Newsletter
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