Guerrilla 2018 Classes Now Open

All Guerrilla training classes are now open for registration.

1. GCAP: Guerrilla Capacity and Performance — From Counters to Containers and Clouds
2. GDAT: Guerrilla Data Analytics — Everything from Linear Regression to Machine Learning
3. PDQW: Pretty Damn Quick Workshop — Personal tuition for performance and capacity mgmt

The following highlights indicate the kind of thing you'll learn. Most especially, how to make better use of all that monitoring and load-testing data you keep collecting.

• How to save millions of dollars with a one-line performance model (video)
• How to minimize chargeback after you lift and shift to the cloud (video)
• How to correctly emulate web traffic on a load-testing rig (PDF)

See what Guerrilla grads are saying about these classes. And how many instructors do you know that are available for you from 9am to 9pm (or later) each day of your class?

Who should attend?

• IT architects
• Application developers
• Performance engineers
• Sysadmins (Linux, Unix, Windows)
• System engineers
• Test engineers
• Mainframe sysops (IBM. Hitachi, Fujitsu, Unisys)
• Database admins
• Devops practitioners
• SRE engineers
• Anyone interested in getting beyond performance monitoring

As usual, Sheraton Four Points has bedrooms available at the Performance Dynamics discounted rate. The room-booking link is on the registration page.

Tell a colleague and see you in September!

Guerrilla Mantras Now Updated on Twitter

Those of you in the trenches carrying out performance analysis and capacity planning, perhaps doing it off your own bat, often find yourself in the position where you wish you could point quickly to a more authoritative list of reasons in support your goals. It can mean the difference between convincing your management or not.


To this end, the Guerrilla Manual is provided as a pull-out booklet in the rear jacket of my Guerrilla Capacity Planning book. Now, for an even more rapid-fire response, Guerrilla mantras (140 characters or less) are automatically posted on Twitter. Look for the GMantra tag.

National Performance Officer Appointed

Here's another Guerrilla "grenade" (as in, weapon of mass instruction) you can throw at your boss.

Clearly, this Obama dude is displaying enlightenment by appointing Nancy Killefer as his administration's chief performance officer; a new White House position aimed at eliminating government waste and improving efficiency. Every home, well ... organization, should have one.

Update (Feb 3, 2009): It worked!(?) The first Chief Performance Officer found herself under-performing and was removed.

Guerrilla Manifesto Online Updated

Those of you who own a copy of Guerrilla Capacity Planning, know about the little manual included in the back jacket (my editor's idea, btw). The intent is to use it as a weapon of mass instruction in your Tiger Team meetings or whatever. As my Aussie colleague, Steve Jenkin, pointed out to me at the time I was writing that book, those of you in the trenches often run into resistance when trying to propose some capacity or performance approach because you lack the authority; even if your argument is an excellent one.

The role of the Guerrilla Manifesto is to provide you with more authoritative support via the various mantras listed there. Hardcopy is good, but online is better; especially for use with your mobile phone. The most recent updates are now available and have been indexed for easier reference. Let me know how this works for you.

Best Practices

The Guerrilla Manual advises: Best practices are an admission of failure (last item in Section 1). As Wittgenstein said: "Just because we all agree on something, doesn't make it right."

Guerrilla graduate Scott J., sent me the following cartoon by Scott Adams, which offers a Dilbert profundity on the same topic.



For me, the punch line IS the 2nd frame. You may need to click on the strip to see the Dilbert punch line in the 3rd frame.

Guerrilla Manual Updated

The section of the Guerrilla Manifesto that outlines my
Universal Scalability law, has been updated with the following diagrams,

which show the explicit components of the model (equation 1). Such effects are now being recognized more widely, so I'll be explaining more about this in my Guerrilla Boot Camp class, next week.javascript:void(0)