Blue Apron Decreases Load Time by 30% With Splunk Synthetic Monitoring

Blue Apron provides subscribers with fresh, locally sourced ingredients in pre- measured quantities and step-by-step recipes to help chefs of all levels cook incredible meals at home.

Just as Blue Apron makes it easy for everyone to achieve culinary success at home, through Splunk Web Optimization, an extension of Splunk Synthetic Monitoring, engineering teams of all sizes can identify defects and receive step-by-step directions on how to address any hang-ups with speed and ease.

Tom Wilson, principal engineer at Blue Apron, shared how his team leverages Splunk Synthetic Monitoring: “We have seen two big benefits from using Splunk Web Optimization. The heart of it is the dead-simple suggestions on how to improve our website by telling us what is broken, why it is broken, and what we should do to fix it.” The simple, step-by-step instructions on how to improve their site’s performance has helped Blue Apron respond to defects quickly and accurately.

The second benefit is the knowledge base, which includes how-to guides and best practices. “We are starting to elevate performance as a skill set within the team; the knowledge base — in particular, its explanations on best practices — has been incredibly helpful in doing so,” says Wilson.

Splunk Helps Track and Meet Performance-Related Targets

“From testing new features to identifying easy performance wins, Splunk helps us integrate performance testing into our development life cycle,” says Wilson.

Going forward, Splunk will be a key component of meeting aggressive performance goals. “Splunk has helped us improve our site’s performance by responding to defects quickly and accurately,” says Wilson.

Due to changes suggested by Splunk, Blue Apron reduced the weight of its homepage from 25 MB to four MB and decreased the load time by 30%. “These performance gains are huge, and while we haven’t yet correlated them with a specific business outcome, I know this has improved our customer experience,” says Wilson.