Time is Money
In 2006, Amazon found that every 100ms of latency cost them 1% in sales. Google found that an extra 0.5 seconds in search page generation time dropped traffic by 20%. In the world of systems, speed isn't just a feature; it's a requirement.
What is Latency?
Latency is the time it takes for a single packet of data to travel from the source to the destination. Think of it as the "delay" between a user clicking a button and the action actually happening.
The "Restaurant" Analogy
Imagine you are at a restaurant.
- Latency is the time it takes for the waiter to walk from your table to the kitchen to deliver your order.
What Causes Latency?
- Propagation Delay: The time it takes for a signal to travel at the speed of light through cables.
- Transmission Delay: The time to push all the bits of a packet onto the wire.
- Processing Delay: The time a server takes to read the request and decide what to do.
- Queueing Delay: The time a request spends waiting in a line (buffer) because the server is busy.
How to Reduce It?
- CDNs: Move the data physically closer to the user.
- Caching: Store frequent data in memory (RAM) so you don't have to hit the slow database.
- Optimization: Write more efficient code to reduce processing time.
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