RailsConf 2017: 5 standout performance sessions

Along with a couple other members of the Scout team, I'm heading to sunny Phoenix, Arizona in mid-April for RailsConf. I'm a performance addict, so I've been scanning through the sessions and making notes of the ones that stand out.

My performance short-list is below.

1. What's my app really doing in production?

Daniel will explore how to instrument, debug, and profile your app, using the capabilities of the Rails framework and the Ruby VM. He'll also show how to do this on a live, production system.

2. Rails to Phoenix: How Elixir can level-you-up in Rails

It's no secret that Ruby's straight-line and concurrency performance is, well, less-than stellar. However, that doesn't mean you need to throw your beatiful Ruby code away as your app grows. In this session, I'm interested in hearing Christian's take on Elixir and any war stories of how folks leverage Phoenix for high-concurrency needs alongside an existing Rails app.

Sidenote: we're developing a monitoring agent for Elixir/Phoenix apps. You can signup for early access.

3. Your App Server Config is Wrong

Finding a one-line config change that deliver a more reliable, faster app experience is like finding a $50 bill on the sidewalk. I'm curious to see Nate's take on this.

4. Postgres at Any Scale

Why's your app slow? The database, the database, the database. Usually. I'm interested in hearing Will's take on scaling Postgres from small to large scale.

5. Introducing Helix: High-Performance Ruby Made Easy

I've long been an admirer of the Skylight agent and its usage of Rust for high-performance work. Helix is an open-source toolkit for writing native Ruby extensions in Rust.