What is the primary focus when measuring the latency of a pipeline?

The primary focus when measuring the latency of a pipeline is how long the pipeline takes to run end-to-end. Latency refers specifically to the amount of time it takes for a data point or request to travel through the entire pipeline from input to output. Understanding this end-to-end duration is crucial for assessing the performance and efficiency of the data processing workflow.

By measuring end-to-end latency, developers can identify bottlenecks in the processing stages, determine whether the pipeline meets the required response times, and make necessary optimizations. This measure is essential for real-time or near-real-time applications where timely data communication is critical.

Other considerations, such as the speed of processing individual data records or the costs associated with running the pipeline, are related but do not directly define latency. Resilience to data scale suggests how well the pipeline can handle increasing loads, which, while important, is separate from the concept of latency.