In the previous chapter, we focused on how to profile an application to figure out the performance issue of an application. We also covered logging, which is a useful tool in identifying issues in the application. It was an essential part and will be part of our daily routine when we work on Spring applications.

Now let's look at what we've got in this chapter. This is a crucial chapter in this book; it provides you with ways to improve application performance. In this chapter, we will discuss the fundamental approach for application performance optimization, which is key for any application, including Spring-based applications. We'll discuss Spring's support for Java Management Extension (JMX), improvements in database interactions, and the performance tuning of Spring applications. By the end of this chapter, you will be able to identify performance bottlenecks in a Spring-based application and resolve them.

Let's look at important aspects of application performance optimization with a structured approach. We'll cover the following topics:

• Performance issue symptoms
• Performance tuning life cycle
• Performance tuning patterns and anti-patterns
• The iterative performance-tuning process
• Spring support of JMX