The document discusses latency and how reducing latency can increase revenue and user engagement for various applications and websites. It provides examples of how Google, AOL, and Shopzilla saw drops in traffic and revenue when latency increased even by just half a second. The document advocates that the Digital Plymouth Project should make latency its top priority and use the lowest latency connections possible, such as undersea cables, to provide services with less than 5ms latency to London and 34ms to New York. This would allow for synchronous and asynchronous data replication. Reduced latency could provide opportunities for Olympic bids, data center services, and call centers located in Plymouth.

1. Mark Craddock
Managing Director – Flexible Computing Ltd

2.  Latency
 is a time delay between the moment something is
initiated, and the moment one of its effects
begins or becomes detectable.

3.  Latency
 The word derives from the fact that during the
period of latency the effects of an action are
latent, meaning "potential" or "not yet observed".
...
 Nothing happens during this period

4.  Google Example
 Google surveyed users and asked would you like 10, 20, or 30
results. Users unanimously wanted 30
 Google increased the number of search results to thirty. Traffic
and revenue from Google in the experimental group dropped by
20%
 Analysis: The page with 10 results took .4 seconds to generate.
The page with 30 results took .9 seconds.
 Analysis: Revenue dropped by 20 % due to the latency of
displaying 30 results was 0.5 seconds more than the latency of
displaying 10
 Adding the checkout icon (a shopping cart) to search results
made the page 2% slower with a corresponding 2% drop in
searches / user.

5.  Trading: In today’s world of electronic trading, “a
millisecond advantage in trading applications can be
worth $100 million a year to a major brokerage firm.”

6.  AOL: Page views drop off as page load times
increase. Users in the top decile of page load
times view ~7.5 pages/visit. This drops to ~6
pages/visit in the 3rd decile, and bottoms out at
~5 pages/visit for users with the slowest page
load times.
 Shopzilla: A year-long performance redesign
resulted in a 5 second speed up (from ~7 seconds
to ~2 seconds). This resulted in a 25% increase in
page views, a 7-12% increase in revenue, and a
50% reduction in hardware.

7.  Latency should be the single most primary
concern for the Digital Plymouth Project.
 If we (Tax Payers) are to fund and host a Data
Centre in Plymouth it must provide the
lowest latency services possible, if we don’t,
the data centre will be a very cold and empty
space!

8.  Use the lowest latency connections possible!

9.  Apollo Transatlantic Cable
 Tier 1 Internet Access
 Bude Cable Station
 Co-Location Facility
 Carrier Agnostic
 Dual Redundant Routes

10.  <5ms Latency to Docklands
 Enables synchronous data replication
 <34ms Latency to New York
 Enables asynchronous data replication
Plymouth London
Bude
Businesses Businesses
Plymouth Cable Station
London Surrey
IXP
POP PLINX L/S Apollo POP
H2O - ISP
London IXP
Latency - 5 ms

11.  TATA Transatlantic Cable
 Tier 1 Internet Access
 Highbridge Cable Station
 Co-Location Facility
 Carrier Agnostic
 Dual Redundant Route, Poddington, Barnstable
 Initial Discussions to provide 10Gb Connectivity to
Plymouth

12.  <5ms Latency to Docklands
 Enable synchronous data replication
 <34ms Latency to New York
 Enables asynchronous data replication
Plymouth London
Highbridge
Businesses Businesses
Plymouth Cable Station
London Surrey
IXP
POP PLINX L/S TATA POP
H2O - ISP
London IXP
Latency - 5 ms

13.  Opportunities
 Olympic Bids
▪ Low Latency Services – Docklands
▪ Connection Direct USA
 Data Centre Services
▪ Hosting, Co-Location, Disaster Recovery Facilities
 ICT Service Organisations
▪ No Longer Located Next to Data Centre
 Call Centres (VOIP Applications)
▪ Student Population

14.  Google provides a user interface for the language
Bork! Bork! Bork!
 The Swedish Chef is a Muppet that appeared on The
Muppet Show. He was operated by Jim Henson and
Frank Oz simultaneously
 He was one of the few Muppets to employ an actual
puppeteer's hands, originally Oz's – that is, they were
visible to the audience through his sleeves and
facilitated handling food and utensils.
 http://www.google.com/intl/xx-bork/