Online shopping through stable systems

Approach

No sooner said than done. After a brief but intensive induction by Breuninger’s IT staff, our Novatec team tested and analyzed all relevant Breuninger systems. InspectIT, the open source application performance management tool, was used to diagnose problems. How do their systems behave when they are accessed extremely frequently, as is the case at Christmas time? Does the server have enough memory? Are the database indexes sufficient? Can application code performance be improved?

Vulnerabilities were identified within just three days. “Our systems were analyzed very quickly. It was good that everyone involved was sitting at the same table, both the development team from our online store and the APM professionals from Novatec.

This led to a very fruitful collaboration. We were able to implement Novatec’s concrete suggestions immediately,” says Schöchlin.

Results

Some deficiencies, such as search indexes in the online store’s databases, could be directly improved. Other bottlenecks, for example in SQL statements, calls to external systems or various caches, were eliminated step by step by Breuninger’s IT team based on the analysis results.

“Our systems ran smoothly – even during a heavy rush. The request volume could be doubled per second. The system runs twice as fast. Most importantly, this improves the shopping experience for our customers. And that’s what matters,” emphasizes Marc Schöchlin. In addition, the open source tool inspectIT does not incur any license costs, as is the case when purchasing a commercial APM tool.

Instead of investing money in commercial APM tools, it could be invested in essential consulting services and relevant feature development. For Breuninger, this primarily means being able to concentrate on its core business – creating shopping experiences. And the IT team at Breuninger were able to celebrate a relaxing Christmas.