[trussi]

Build and install a scaled out application. Multiple AWS instances in a load balanced configuration. Use small instances to purposely bottleneck the available resource pool.

Use something like Blitz.io to beat the hell out of the application. This is your baseline

Use performance monitoring and optimization tools to improve the architecture and application. Go through each layer of the application to see where the biggest gains can be found. Also look/test for data consistency.

Rinse and repeat with blitz.io.

Also, test how well the architecture responds to various types of server failures.

And make sure you test a viable backup process as well.

Lastly, once you have a nice, performant architecture, increase system resources both up (more resources per server) and out (more servers) to see how well the system actually scales. :)

[armandososa]

    Build and install a scaled out application. Multiple AWS instances in a load balanced configuration. Use small instances to purposely bottleneck the available resource pool.

But where do you learn how to install a load balancer? I know I can google that particular example. But as with learning anything new, the big problem is when you don't know what you don't know.