Performance indicators

• Latency: how fast a data store can process a single request.
• Throughput: How many requests can a data store process per unit of time.

Typically, you will use data store benchmarking software to test the performance of your data store by generating a particular type of workload that you are planning to run. For example: the workload can on average consist of 90% read transactions and 10% write transactions. Low latency and high throughput would be great, if only both can be achieved at the same time. There is always a compromise between the two, since throughput can be increased by sacrificing latency and vice versa. Later in the tutorial we will look at how we can improve both.