RonKyle (8/22/2013)
The database can be a choke point but it isn't always.
The application may be performing poorly, but it's not a chokepoint in the sense that the database is. In most setups, all the read and write requests coming from either all the applications or from the multiple servers end up going to the ONE database. That's was makes it the chokepoint. In a sense, it is the center of that application's universe. (I'm not sure I like the analogy, but for now I'll go with it).
In my specific case, it looks like the application is iterating one-by-one through the records in the database just to display them to the screen. I can get the same information in a second if I query the production database directly. Even if I'm the only one in the system, it shouldn't take a full minute for the application to retrieve 22 records from the database, when it's instantaneous querying the database directly.
To keep with your space analogy, troubleshooting data issues through the application is travelling sub-light speeds, while querying the database myself (without the application) is like stepping through a wormhole to my destination.