Practical strategies for configuring balanced transaction processing systems

An examination is made of the problem of configuring transaction processing (TP) systems, and subjective opinions are given as to whether various techniques can be applied to real-world situations. The problem is examined from the perspective of putting together a system using existing hardware and software components plus some amount of application code. It is assumed that one will be constrained by existing characteristics of the hardware and software and that the design requirements might include the level of detail contained in a formal request for proposal. This study is biased to formal techniques, particularly queuing theory, which can be used for configurating systems at various points within the system life cycle.<>