Most web application developers remain blissfully unaware of the major performance roadblocks their applications face in the wild: access network bandwidth restrictions and unexpectedly high latency (see also Fallacies of Distributed Computing with an in-depth explanation). The impact of these two roadblocks is further amplified by behavior of TCP and HTTP, the protocols used by almost all web applications.

These issues are well documented in my Scalable Web Application Design course and in a free TCP, HTTP and SPDY webinar for those of you who won’t be able to make it to Ljubljana.