4 Leaf Labs: Turbocharged Performance Driving Efficiency
4 Leaf Labs turbocharged performance with Atatus APM and browser monitoring, achieving 80% faster response times and driving operational efficiency.
Results at a Glance
Performance Bottlenecks Limiting Growth
4 Leaf Labs, a software development consultancy, was facing serious performance issues with their client-facing applications. Response times averaged 4 seconds, errors occurred frequently, and the team spent most of their time debugging production issues instead of building new features.
Without proper monitoring, they were losing clients to competitors who could deliver faster, more reliable applications. The small team needed visibility into performance bottlenecks to compete effectively.
Key Challenges
- Average API response time was 4 seconds
- High error rate (8%) causing client complaints
- Team spending 60% of time on bug fixes vs features
- Losing clients due to performance issues
- No visibility into frontend vs backend bottlenecks
- Infrastructure costs growing faster than revenue
- Limited debugging tools for distributed systems
Full-Stack Performance Monitoring
4 Leaf Labs implemented Atatus APM and Real User Monitoring to gain complete visibility into application performance. They could now see exactly which database queries, API calls, or frontend code were causing slowdowns.
The browser monitoring revealed that 60% of performance issues were actually on the frontend—something they had previously blamed on the backend. With this insight, they optimized both layers effectively.
Implementation Steps
- Deployed APM for backend transaction tracing
- Implemented browser monitoring for frontend performance
- Set up database query monitoring and optimization
- Configured alerting for performance degradation
- Created performance budgets for new features
- Integrated monitoring into CI/CD pipeline
- Established performance SLOs with clients
Technologies Used
Performance Breakthrough
Armed with Atatus insights, the team made targeted optimizations that reduced response times by 80%. They discovered and fixed N+1 database queries, optimized frontend JavaScript bundles, and right-sized infrastructure based on actual usage patterns.
Error rates dropped 92% as the team could proactively identify and fix issues before they impacted clients. Development velocity increased 55% as engineers spent less time firefighting and more time building features.
Key Achievements
- Response times improved 80% (from 4s to 800ms)
- Error rate reduced 92% (from 8% to 0.6%)
- Development velocity increased 55%
- Customer retention improved 45%
- Infrastructure costs reduced 35% through optimization
- Team productivity increased 60% with less firefighting
- Client satisfaction scores improved from 3.1/5 to 4.6/5
- New client acquisition increased 40% with better reputation
"Atatus was a game-changer for our consultancy. We went from constantly firefighting performance issues to proactively optimizing. Our applications are 80% faster, clients are happier, and we're winning more business. The ROI was immediate."