(M. Gray - Scottsdale, AZ) A common comment about the Java environment is "it is too slow".  This comment is generally made without any scientific backing and seems to be the result of continuing bad press about initial versions.  The following are real world tests using our web site.  Shown below, in table one, is the total CPU time from when an HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) request is received, until the entire page has been sent to the web browser. The first example is typical of a dynamic page that doesn't include any queries to a database.  In the second, several queries were made to the Sybase database.  Both of these examples were measured from a typical query in our Current Job List pages.

Assuming an average processing time of 50mS per request and 30 seconds between requests, over 600 users could use our "low-end" Pentium II system.  With a multi-processor system, additional memory, and a set of SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) drives, we could easily serve 4000-5000 simultaneous users on a single system.