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Take a SpeedTrace Pro Webinar!

April 30th, 2009

More than just a tool!

As mentioned earlier SpeedTrace Pro is more than the customary software profiling tool, which also places higher demands on user expertise. It is a whole toolkit of versatile modular functionality. It stands for an interactive evaluative process using the whole range of functions and filters to delve layer by layer through the depths of your problematic code.

SpeedTrace provides you with a powerful concept!

Above all SpeedTrace Pro provides a concept with the aim to lay bare and transparent poorly or imperfectly designed software components and thereby empower and systematically guide the developer, tester, or administrator towards the right kinds of solutions.

Getting started

When you start profiling your application with SpeedTrace Pro, for example in a trial period, we recommend you in any case to make use of our extensive support. The advantage for you is to get expedient online help in the case of issues or problems encountered while evaluating, and for us to get sufficient feedback how we can best help you to suit your requirements.

To familiarize yourself …

Depending on the environment and the size, complexity or special nature of your application, you might at some point run into hurdles in the process of getting acquainted with SpeedTrace Pro. Usually, these can be overcome with a few changes to the default settings or by applying filters in the right places …

… we offer cost-free webinars!

For this purpose we have arranged to conduct cost-free user-specific webinars (online tutorials) for you and your staff

  • to get you started (introductory sessions)
  • to work on a special problem you might have (supervised sessions over the phone while you’re working with SpeedTrace Pro)
  • and/or to familiarize you with the wide range of SpeedTrace’s most salient features (online sessions with examples highlighting specific features).

For more advanced forms of support to develop your profiling skills or, for example, to help you supervise your profiling processes, we also offer SpeedTRace Pro Workshops and Consulting.

Apply for a cost-free webinar now!

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RC3 3.3.38 available for Download

February 26th, 2009

The Release Candidate of SpeedTrace Pro 3.3.38 RC3 is available for download!
SpeedTrace Pro 3.3.38 RC3
Both as 32bit and 64bit version.

Since the last Version, some bug-fixes have been performed:

  • Now layouts will be saved in large graphics columns.
  • Formally, when more than 10.000 filters were set, no error messages occurred. Now, this has been fixed!

New features have been added:

  • Selection of reports with graphics, or in small version as text output is now possible.
  • Write cache hase been increased to 500 MB.

Download now

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SpeedTrace Pro 3.3 RC3 is online!

February 24th, 2009

SpeedTrace Pro is developing very fast!

Today the last Release Candidate of version 3.3 has finished and is online for download.

Try out SpeedTrace Pro, download Now!

Download now

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Running SpeedTrace with virtual machines (VM)

February 5th, 2009

Common trace problems in virtual environments

In the wake of our consulting activities we encountered a minor hurdle while running SpeedTrace in a large-application virtual machine environment. Since some of our customers also came across similar problems I thought it might be useful to let you in on the discourse.

Unexpectedly high overhead behavior …

While running SpeedTrace in such an environment we were suddenly confronted with an unusual overhead of 4-6 times the application’s normal speed – quite atypical of SpeedTrace’s reliably unintrusive behavior. It was as if there was some kind of echoing or reverberating effect that was interfering with the tracing procedure.

… is often caused by the VMware

Our developers found the VMware architecture to be at the root of the problem. VMware happens to be the software commonly used in virtual machine environments. Besides, it looks like we are going to have to cope with VMware overhead for some time to come … In any case, the VM overhead would invariably occur with any other profiler even as good as SpeedTRace which has been repeatedly acclaimed for its unusual unintrusiveness, accuracy and speed.

SpeedTrace solution to VM yields excellent results!

We are happy to announce, however, that our SpeedTrace development team has devised a rather simple and elegant solution to the problem. We tried it out and it works perfectly down to the usual couple of nanoseconds SpeedTrace normally generates in terms of its extremely low overhead rates.

SpeedTrace provides 100% accurate
readouts with zero overhead!

In fact, with SpeedTrace you can even objectively calculate and thus eliminate the already minute overhead delays to yield maximum accuracy! The new 3.3.34 version about to go online (but can be sent immediately on request) even takes a step further to show these net results automatically.

Don’t forget to use blackboxing, triggers and filters!

SpeedTrace’s overwhelming accuracy, however, should not distract your attention from the variety of time- and resource-saving blackboxing, trigger, and filtering functions that Speedtrace offers to speed up your whole trace and profiling process. To profile efficiently, third-party software components, for example, can and should be isolated through blackboxing even before you make your first trace. SpeedTrace is not only incredibly accurate, it is also stunningly fast!

For best results with virtual machines please consult our SpeedTrace support team.

Posted in Profiler FAQ | No Comments »

Software implementing soft skills at OOP 2009

January 22nd, 2009

SpeedTrace exhibited again

We are exhibiting SpeedTrace again at the OOP 2009 in Munich from January 27 to 29! Come and visit us in Hall 4, Stand 4.4. Since last year’s OOP software trade fair SpeedTrace has been enhanced with many new features and shaped to yet further perfection (see previous blog entries). We are also seizing the occasion to present our Software Performance Consulting concept in connection with SpeedTrace.

OOP 2009 soft skill focus

The OOP software trade fair has always had a knack for combining software technology with the often underestimated managerial skills required to implement software-based solutions. Since the importance of these social aspects including improved communication skills, trust building, team motivation, etc. has been gaining increasing attention in recent years, the OOP has adopted "soft skills" as its main thematic focus for 2009.

IT performance consulting with SpeedTrace

Within this context SpeedTrace is going to be introduced in the new light of its general concept of IT performance consulting. In previous entries I have tried to point out that SpeedTrace is much more than just a tool. Due to its highly modular structure (complex filtering system, scaled viewing, multiple functionality, etc.) it is more like a highly sophisticated toolkit that calls for a more experienced interactive approach to problem solving based on the principle of elimination.

SpeedTrace consulting experience

We have also had a lot of good experience doing consulting for major companies over the last couple of years. Large-scale projects involving whole departments or even whole companies often require a lot of support with a highly systematic consulting approach. Accordingly, a variety of measures including introductory seminars, guided and systematized diagnostic sessions, and supervised development of rigorous and consistent measurement methodologies have to be orchestrated and fine-tuned to meet the individual requirements and purposes of the organizations concerned.

The Transparence Empowers Principle (TEP)

In the light of this new dimension, our SpeedTrace team is launching its consulting concept under our newly created precept:

T r a n s p a r e n c e e m p o w e r s !

As shown in our last entry " …Get to the root" SpeedTrace’s unique nonintrusive architecture is best apt to deliver the valid facts of a problem enabling you to penetrate deep down into your code to expose the root causes of a problem and render them clear and transparent. In doing so it empowers software developers by providing them with the linchpin for creating effective solutions.

transparence empowers

TEP-based marketing and consulting

Analogously, our marketing approach of offering CTP versions to potential customers to try out and apply SpeedTrace is also open and transparent and geared to encourage users to solve their problems on their own with a little support and guidance.

Our consulting approach is also aimed in a joint effort to render an organization’s software absolutely transparent and susceptible to effective diagnostics as quickly as possible in order to empower companies to self-reliantly develop their own long-lasting expedient solutions.

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Stop poking around the symptoms: Get to the root!

January 13th, 2009

Crucial precautions

When purchasing a software profiler/tracer you’ll be well advised to test the various tools on the market with the utmost care. This applies especially when the software you are developing is going to be used in sensitive areas where there is a lot at stake or where reliable software can even be a matter of life or death.

Misleading methodologies

A lot of conventional profilers tend to poke around the symptoms instead of drilling down to the root cause of a problem. Or worse, they might let you drill down in the wrong places just giving you the impression that you’re getting there when you’re actually not. Besides, they tend to intrude upon the application in the act of evaluation to the point of distortion. All this is liable to yield misleading results, lead your diagnostics astray, and induce the wrong kinds of treatment – perhaps the cure that kills the patient.

First get the facts!

To prevent distortion by intrusion (overhead) SpeedTrace takes a more systematic approach. Akin to a doctor’s anamnesis, SpeedTrace initiates its diagnosis by first recording without evaluating the overall picture, thus presenting you with an overview of the software product’s general "constitution". By thus gaining a bird’s eye view of the matter you are able to transparently map out all the problem areas of a version for the subsequent tracing analysis.

Intuitiveness vs. reliability

It is often said that other profilers may be more "intuitive", but that does not in the least make them just as sound and objective. Life is often not as simple as we’d like it to be, and complex situations usually require more intricate procedures and greater routine. In my view, this applies particularly to profiling and tracing software issues.

More than just a tool!

SpeedTrace’s more sophisticated architecture offers the user maximum flexibility, reliability and accuracy:

  • SpeadTrace’s holistic diagnostics procedure provides you with a clear, pre-evaluative "roadmap" for your analysis!
  • SpeadTrace’s thoroughly systematic methodology (modular filtering system, blackboxing function, scalable viewing, versatile aggregations, etc.) helps you to optimize your search and in effect drill down deep into the problematic lines of your code!
  • SpeadTrace’s guaranteed nonintrusiveness (due to minimized overhead) obviates a major source of misleading information and distortion of the facts. SpeedTrace’s architecture even allows you to read out results without overhead!

Your choice can make a difference!

It can really make a difference whether you prioritize intuitive quick fixes and hazard the consequences or opt for a really reliable and accurate tool that has its complexities and requires some initial familiarizing. We therefore encourage our customers to benefit from our extensive support system and individual consulting to get started.

In conclusion, wherever safety and security is at stake and absolute reliability is required, SpeedTrace is most probably your best choice.

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New SpeedTrace 3.3 RC1 Version online!

November 18th, 2008

SpeedTrace Pro 3.3 is about to replace Version 3.2.
The final version is already on its way and will be released very soon. Since yesterday, the first release candidate (RC1) is available.

SpeedTrace Pro 3.3 RC1

SpeedTrace Pro 3.3 RC1

SpeedTrace Pro 3.3, the fast profiler and tracer for .NET applications, comes with many new enhancements:

Here is a brief list of important new features:

Greater parallelism:
You get minimized profiler overheads, especially when working with multi-threaded server applications.

Increased accuracy:
When applying the blackbox filters, the overhead is now taken into account, so that you get even more accurate measured time results.

Enhanced usability: It has now been made even easier to operate self-optimized recording filter settings.

Get a cost-free foretaste of the SpeedTrace Pro 3.3 Final Version. Test the current 3.3.29 RC1 Version! Download this version and try it out until the end of the year – your Christmas bonus!

Download now

Posted in General, Releases | No Comments »

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