Nginx: From An open-source project to $670M Enterprise value
Before Nginx (C10K Problem)
The C10k problem was defined in 1999 by Dan Kegel, and it refers to the inability of a server to scale beyond 10,000 connections or clients due to resource exhaustion.
The main problem that web servers commonly face were heavy loads, when more connections are required to be made, the webserver slows down.
Back in 2000 one of the popular servers was Apache, Despite Apache’s popularity and trustworthiness, it does not handle high traffic loads very well. This is caused by the very principle of its work.
- Can’t handle more than 10 thousand requests at a time;
- Apache span new process
- Apache consumes more RAM under heavier load.
- More connection → Less Performance
How does Nginx Work ?
Nginx is extremely popular with high traffic web sites. When you visit the Top 1000 popular websites (Twitch, Instagram, Slack, …) there is a high chance that they use Nginx as a Server because it can handle more than ten thousand simultaneous connections with its event-driven architecture.
Some Nginx features include:
- Reverse Proxy (To distribute the load to multiple Backends)
- Security
- Caching
- Load balancing
From Idea to $670M Entreprise value
2002: Start of the Journey (Idea)
Now: Aquisition for $670M by F5 Network
Growth of Nginx over the years
Over the years Nginx adoption grew exponentially compared to other web servers.
While Apache is the most popular overall option, Nginx is actually the most popular web server among high-traffic websites.
When you break down usage rates by traffic, Nginx powers:
- 61% of the 100,000 most popular sites (up from 56.1% in 2018)
- 67% of the 10,000 most popular sites (up from 63.2% in 2018)
- 59% of the 1,000 most popular sites (up from 57% in 2018)
Next Article ?
In the next article we will deep dive into the technical side of Nginx and explain:
→ What does LoadBalancer mean ?
→ Different types of LoadBalancers
→ Http Cache
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