With most enterprises now conducting business on the Web, it has become more crucial than ever that the experience is rich and responsive. Often these two goals conflict. How do you ensure a robust, interactive experience without sacrificing page-loading speed? How is it that some of your competitors are able to deliver dynamic content and rich Internet applications (RIAs) and still have sub-second load times? The answer comes in two parts: best practices for you (addressed in this report), and best practices for your application development colleagues (addressed in part two of this series). To optimize the infrastructure for blazing fast Web site response, follow these four best practices:

• measure early and often
• cache smart and cache often
• architect for scale out
• partner with application development professionals

These best practices are not just about infrastructure; they are also about jointly developing and executing your ongoing performance management strategy with the application development professionals rather than passing the problems back and forth with the requisite finger pointing.