If your application is using a JDBC component and you are concerned about performance, then the use of connection pooling on the application server is recommended.  To use connection pooling it must be activated on the application server and then the connection pool name needs to be referenced in the JDBC connection definition in xCommerce Designer (see graphic below).  (Note that the connection pool is not used when executing or animating the component in Designer.  It is used only when the service is deployed to the application server.) 

The following text explains about connection pools and how to reference them in xCommerce.  It is taken from the SilverStream xCommerce Enterprise Enabler for JDBC User's Guide page 8.

            When you create a JDBC Connection Resource, you are asked to provide a Driver Name and Connection Pool.

The JDBC Driver sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver is part of the JRE (Java Runtime Environment, which you can find under the Designer directory), and you can use this driver to establish your connection. But you can also obtain other JDBC drivers. For instance, the SilverStream Application Server has its own JDBC drivers (e.g. com.sssw.jdbc.oracle8.Driver). Also, you can visit the Web site of the vendor for the SQL database you're using and download their driver(s).

A connection pool is a set of database connections managed by the application server for the various applications it manages. It provides more efficient use of database and connection resources for multiple applications running in the same application server. This, in turn, can improve overall system performance. You can obtain the Pool Name for your application server from your Server Administrator. For deployments within the SilverStream Application Server the pool name will be Databases/DBName/DataSource where DBName is the name that was used when the database was added to the server. For example, if you were connecting to the TutorialBegin3 database provided with the application server, the pool name would be Databases/TutorialBegin3/DataSource.

Connection pooling is only operational in the deployment environment. Setting the name here will not affect Designer connections. Only the deployed project will be affected.