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To be valid, a performance test must minimize or isolate external influences. This can be done with a dedicated platform (and network if a multi-host configuration is used). Unfortunately, cloud platforms are shared and the performance allocated to any given set of processes varies with time. To utilize a ahared platform, you must monitor it and factor its load into the performance calculations. This can be complicated since there are so many potential factors to consider but "rough order of magnitude" results are still quite useful. This is still useful and may be the most practical approach for interim performance test.