Here's a Summary of my Presentation at DrupalCamp Asheville (NC), September 18, 2010.
We tested Boost on a client’s eCommerce site and a test version of www.tylerbrothers.net. Both of these sites have mostly anonymous users and fairly static content. They are both hosted on a shared hosting service. These factors make them good candidates for Boost.
You can get to the Boost Project at www.drupal.org/project/boost.
Apache Bench (ab) is a performance measurement tool that comes with Apache. It comes natively on a Mac. If you are using a PC, you need to load the WAMP or XAMPP stack to get Apache and ab. Some links about ab and XAMPP:
XAMPP or XAMPP lite on a Windows machine:
http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html#646
More info on the process:
http://justthesam.com/2009/04/apache-bench-notes/
The results for me were quite significant improvements. Please see the PDF for data and charts.
