Use Curl to identify bottlenecks in your service layers.

curlformat.txt

\n
Size:     %{size_download}\n
DNS:      %{time_namelookup}\n
Connect:  %{time_connect}\n
SSL:      %{time_appconnect}\n
Transfer: %{time_starttransfer}\n
Total:    %{time_total}\n

Uncached DNS, new connection

# SSL request to hostname that is not in DNS

> curl -o /dev/null -w @curlformat https://beta.finance.yahoo.com
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100  255k    0  255k    0     0   233k      0 --:--:--  0:00:01 --:--:--  233k

Size:     261255
DNS:      0.522
Connect:  0.536
SSL:      0.667
Transfer: 0.772
Total:    1.094

# Repeat another 2 requests to the same host: DNS is now cached, saving 0.5 seconds.
# The final request re-uses the already open connection that Curl is holding, making
# DNS lookup, Connection time, and SSL handshake time all 0.

> curl -o /dev/null -w @../curlformat https://beta.finance.yahoo.com -o /dev/null https://beta.finance.yahoo.com
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100  255k    0  255k    0     0   108k      0 --:--:--  0:00:02 --:--:--  109k

Size:     261238
DNS:      0.005
Connect:  0.086
SSL:      0.230
Transfer: 1.930
Total:    2.341

100  255k    0  255k    0     0   495k      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 1048k

Size:     261255
DNS:      0.000
Connect:  0.000 <-- connection pool - 80ms connect time already completed above
SSL:      0.000 <-- connection pool - 140ms SSL handshake already completed above
Transfer: 0.064
Total:    0.515