mod_pagespeed applies several optimizations and performance filters . Rails already includes some of these best practices, such as asset packaging, but mod_pagespeed goes even further by compressing and minimizing each asset bundle.
Many of the mod_pagespeed filters can be implemented using Ruby, creating specific functions or Rails filters, but if you have never applied any performance optimization to Ruby until today, mod_pagespeed is a good tool for playing and playing.
mod_pagespeed works at the server level. This means that several optimizations are slightly more efficient than running the same optimization at the Rails level.
If you will use mod_pagespeed or not, take the time to check your Rails application and ask yourself if you have other sections of your application that deserve optimization. The performance improvements provided by mod_pagespeed do not unambiguously solve all your performance problems.
I saw how programmers tried to use resource caching to get 3 ms, while they did not implement any memcached caching strategy to reduce the computation time in their Rails model methods. In other words, mod_pagespeed should not be a plug & forget addition, but just one step in your optimization strategy.
Simone carletti
source share