Apigee analytics vs Performance testing

Analytics dashboard is the source for various metrics collected during an API call. It includes every little detail that we need to improve the performance of the API.

Following are a few concerns that I have with regards to performance testing

1. So, where exactly the performance testing comes into play since the end goal of performance testing is to get the metrics that can be used to enhance the performance of the API and do we have a minimum TPS to move forward with this phase.

2. If varying loads is a good use case to put performance testing in place what would be the max TPS I can test my API to if I'm seeing 8TPS on my proxy performance dashboard

3. Do I really have to do the performance testing or can I rely on analytics information to get the required metrics

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@venkatasaik the short answer to your question is that performance testing is a deliberate active attempt to test the overall performance of the system whereas apigee analytics is a passive measurement of the api layer's behavior.

Performance testing itself is a broad concept and can be divided into focused areas like: Stress testing, Load testing, Spike testing etc. For details read this wiki article.

  1. Performance testing is to test the performance of the system Eg: analytics may show that in the past with 8 tps traffic my proxy was able to have a response time of 1 sec. But will this response time be affected if I increase the traffic load to say 100 tps? Can my backend support 100 concurrent calls? These are the kind of questions that you need to answer when running a performance test.
  2. Ideally, you should determine what is the max load expected on your api when deployed in 'normal' production. And you should test with a load that is slightly higher than that to ensure that your api does not falter under pressure.
  3. Yes. You should indeed go for performance testing. It is an indispensable part of any api's non-functional requirements.

That is really helpful thanks @Cladius Fernando