India, February 12, 2025 : Yandex, a global tech company, develops and open-sources Perforator, an innovative tool for continuous real-time monitoring and
analysis of servers and applications.
Perforator helps developers identify the most resource-intensive
sections of code and provides detailed statistics for subsequent optimization.
By identifying code inefficiencies and supporting profile-guided optimization,
Perforator delivers accurate data that enables businesses to manually optimize
their applications and reduce infrastructure costs by up to 20%. Depending on
company size, this could translate to millions or even billions saved annually.
“Perforator helps businesses get the most out of their servers
without sacrificing performance," said Sergey Skvortsov, a senior
developer at Yandex who leads the team behind the tool. "Using Perforator,
businesses can optimize their code, reduce server load, and ultimately lower
energy and equipment costs."
Why use Perforator?
Resource optimization is crucial for large data centers, big tech corporations,
as well as small businesses and startups with limited resources. Instead of
investing in additional equipment, companies can leverage Perforator to
optimize their existing infrastructure without sacrificing performance. The
tool has already been used for profiling in many Yandex services for over a
year, and now it is accessible to companies, developers, and researchers
worldwide.
Companies can deploy Perforator on their own servers, minimizing
reliance on external cloud providers while maintaining full control over their
data. This makes Perforator a strong fit for organizations with stringent data
security requirements operating within closed infrastructures.
"Perforator can benefit companies of all sizes, from small
businesses with 10-100 servers, which can save millions of dollars per year, to
larger enterprises with thousands of servers and more, where savings can reach
hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars annually” Sergey Skvortsov
noted. “Regardless of your company size, Perforator can help you reduce
infrastructure costs, freeing up resources for further innovation and growth.”
How Perforator works
Perforator provides detailed insights into server resource usage
and analyzes the impact of code on performance, highlighting which applications
consume the most system resources. Perforator uses eBPF technology to run small
programs within the Linux kernel in a way that is safe and does not slow down
the system. eBPF allows for improved monitoring, security, and performance optimization
without changing the source code.
Perforator supports native programming languages such as C, C++,
Go, Rust, Python, and Java. The solution enables in-depth analytics and data
visualization with flame graphs, making problem diagnostics much more manageable.
An example of a flame graph
generated by Perforator
“Perforator has been battle-tested in Yandex’s demanding
environment for over a year and provides a wide range of features that make it
a reliable and versatile solution for monitoring and optimizing server
performance,” Sergey Skvortsov added.
One of Perforator's key advantages is its support for
profile-guided optimization (PGO), which automatically accelerates C++ programs
by up to 10%. Additionally, Perforator is designed to run seamlessly on
individual computers, making it accessible not only to large businesses but
also to startups and tech enthusiasts. Furthermore, Perforator offers essential
features tailored for large organizations, including A/B testing capabilities
that help make better-informed decisions.
Open-source solution for developers
and businesses
The decision to make Perforator open source reflects Yandex's
commitment to fostering community collaboration in developing system
technologies.
“We believe that open-sourcing such
fundamental system technologies helps drive tech innovation worldwide.”
— Sergey Skvortsov.
“We aim for our technologies to benefit the world and provide value
to both developers and businesses. Additionally, the openness of the technology
enables us to make decisions regarding the development of the profiling
infrastructure together with the community.”
What’s next?
In the near future, Perforator will be enhanced with additional
capabilities, including improved integration with Python and Java and more
precise analysis of events.
Perforator's source code is now available on GitHub, alongside other Yandex open-source solutions, such as YaFSDP, a
tool designed to accelerate the training of large language models.
Perforator is the latest addition to Yandex’s collection of
open-source tools. You can view all of the company's open-source projects,
including YaFSDP, AQLM, YTsaurus, and more, on this
page.
About Yandex
Yandex is a global technology company that builds intelligent
products and services powered by machine learning. Its goal is to help
consumers and businesses better navigate the online and offline world. Since
1997, Yandex has delivered world-class, locally relevant search and information
services and developed market-leading on-demand transportation services,
navigation products, and other mobile applications for millions of consumers
worldwide.