I admire the intentions of crowd-sourcing answers to common variables in an effort to identify or pinpoint the root cause of slow performance in NWE amongst ourselves, but am not sure it will bear fruit. I'm especially skeptical that location is a factor.
What I DO recommend, if slow performance impacts your users: perform a series of tests from multiple users working from multiple environments, in a scientific manner. Compile the results and share them with Workfront support. (Not in this thread, unless for some reason you really want to.) This will also record your current performance so you can evaluate if performance is truly better (or not) in the future.
Pick a URL. Everyone that participates in your test should have the same access, so they are loading the approximate same amount of data. For this reason, I chose a dashboard that shows a fair number of records (100-something), and every user that views it gets the same collection of records, so should have similar load times.
Load the URL under multiple conditions:
In Classic, in your computer's standard browser (Edge or Safari).
In Classic, in Chrome and/or Firefox.
In NWE, in your computer's standard browser (Edge or Safari).
In NWE, in Chrome and/or Firefox.
While loading the page in all of the above scenarios, have the browser's Dev Tools open. (This is important.)
In the Dev Tools, view the Network tab. Every browser's dev tools look slightly different, but all should have a Network tab. If you're not sure where to find Dev Tools, Google is your friend.
If you see a long list of URLs in the Network tab, look for a trash can icon or other icon that will clear the list. Clear it, then refresh your page. You will see the list quickly fill up as the page loads, and in the very bottom of the browser, you will see stats on how many requests are being made to Workfront servers, and what is the actual amount of time it takes for the page to load, into fractions of a second. This is MUCH more scientific than a blanket a statement of "NWE is five times slower. (It feels like...)" In some browsers, like Chrome, you need to click a red "stop recording" icon to stop the timer.
Do this a few times in each browser, so you can determine the average load time for the page for each browser in each environment.
When you're done, you should have a minimum of four numbers to show: load time for Browser A in Classic, load time for Browser A in NWE, load time for Browser B in Classic, and load time for Browser B in NWE. If you can test on more browsers, even better.
Along with the URL of the page/dashboard/whatever was tested, provide/compare details about each of the browsers from which each test was performed:
1. OS
2. Browser
3. Browser Version
4. Important: What extensions or add-ons do you have installed on the browser? Each browser has a different method to export a list of the extensions that are installed on it - Google is your friend. This is important because you and your users and me and my users all likely have different extensions installed. Disabling unnecessary extensions can make a big difference in your load times, because there are fewer things processing the data before it's rendered in the browser.
Finally, you'll want to note details about your network connection:
1. On VPN or not?
2. Screen capture of an internet speed test to confirm your bandwidth to the internet is not slowing performance.
The above is annoying to do and takes time, but it is worthwhile. In my case, it gave me a true understanding of the difference in load times and how the environment affects that; as opposed to what it "feels like." Most importantly, I discovered that my preferred browser (Firefox) is consistently slower than Chrome, and Chrome is where I observed the least discrepancy in load times (although NWE was slower in all tests).
Having a collection of real world stats like the above, along with variables like browser and browser extensions, is probably more helpful to Workfront as they work to improve the situation. (I do suspect something will present itself, like, "the slowest pageloads all have XYZ extension enabled - let's explore that")
If nothing else, you'll have true numbers to make recommendations to your users. Like, "Use Chrome, it's the fastest of the slow."
