Everyday we talk to clients, partners and VC's. We consistently hear that performance is a problem and we need to do something about it. But I also had a leader of a large organization telling me “I don't know where to start, there are too many people with too many agendas who are fighting change. I know performance is a huge pain but there is a lot of pain in solving it”.

While I understand his challenge, there is one thing that everyone needs to be aware of. Performance is not just a pain. It has a direct correlation to revenue, profits and thus, each individual's job. If performance continues to be a challenge at a particular Organization A and the competitors are able to address this better, it is only a matter of time before Organization A will address it or go out of business.

We are in an instant gratification economy. Our expectations when it comes to performance of web applications are extremely high and anyone not meeting these expectations is discarded aside.

I know of a very large bank that pays bonuses to their staff based on performance of their web applications. This organization monitors the performance of their sites as well as their competitors. Bonuses are paid (or not) based on how the sites performed. It seems that this organization has gotten the message that performance will determine their success but most organizations still haven't.

I wonder if it is because these organizations thing that they don't have competition? Is that really so? Can that even be possible in this economy?

Application performance is a problem. Do something about it. Your customers vote on the performance of your web applications every day with their dollars and cents. Are you getting everything that you could be getting?