Performance bottlenecks can occur at any level, so it's important to understand the different dimensions where things could be wrong and where to start. In a broad sense, there are three common factors that impact performance, as illustrated in the following image:
As described in Chapter 3, Infrastructure Planning and Design, the infrastructure plays a vital role in system performance. It is very important to select appropriate hardware for the various components based on the usage profile of the system. We also recommend an infrastructure design review to evaluate the hardware and software requirements during the infrastructure planning stage.