ServiceNow web service interface performance (SOAP, JSONv2, REST) comparison

ServiceNow web service interface performance (SOAP, JSONv2, REST) comparison

Back in business after summer vacation. Since the Eureka release is now out and first customers have started to use it, I decided to run some tests to verify whether or not the ServiceNow's new REST API is as fast as I have come to believe it would be.

Based on my first tests, using SOAP UI as client, I am very disappointed. My hypothesis was, based on REST APIs on other systems, that the ServiceNow REST API would be significantly faster than others. That hypothesis is not supported by my findinds.

ServiceNow JSON2 vs JSON performance quick test

ServiceNow JSON2 vs JSON performance quick test

So I managed to steal a couple of minutes from working and parenting, and to run a quick load test for getRecords action which I thought would benefit the most of the streaming. 

Unfortunately I could not get my hands on an instance with both interfaces, but I managed to get my hands on to two instances which were pretty close to OOB state.

ServiceNow JSONv2 vs "old" JSON Web Service interface

ServiceNow's JSONv2 WS interface vs the old JSON WS interface

As part of the Dublin release, ServiceNow is rolling out a brand spanking new JSON web service interface. Now how much is different? Turns out, "not so much", when it comes to interface but a lot of promises have been made regarding performance. For a three part immersion into the old JSON interface (Calgary release and older) check my old posts. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

So what has changed? See below.