Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

Apache Web server gets high performance upgrade

Witrh Nginx close behind, the Apache HTTP server has been enhanced for high traffic environments

The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) has celebrated the 17th anniversary of the release of the Apache HTTP Server by launching a new version of the popular open source Web server software.

Apache HTTP Server version 2.4 is the first major update to the software since 2005, when version 2.2 was released (Version 2.3 was a development only version), and includes many new features that make it more suited for high traffic environments.

Apache is the most widely used Web server across the Internet. It is used by nearly 400 million websites around the world, according to Netcraft estimates.

Apache is used by about 65 percent of all websites. The second most widely used Web server software is Microsoft's IIS (Internet Information Services), running about 14.5 percent of websites. Perhaps Apache's biggest competition, though, is Nginx. Although Nginx has less than a 10 percent market share, over the past month it has gained nearly 12,000 sites, while in that same time Apache has lost 18,000 sites, according to Netcraft.

Perhaps not surprisingly then, many of the new features in Apache 2.4 replicate those high performance features that make Nginx popular.

In particular, Apache 2.4 has been upgraded to work in high traffic environments. Performance has been improved, both to allow more simultaneous connections and to use less memory. The reverse proxy module now allows organizations to expose multiple internal servers through a single IP address even when the addresses of the internal servers change frequently. Administrators can now set timeouts in increments as small as milliseconds, and resource limits can be set with more precision as well. Also caching has been improved, to make it more suited for high traffic usage.

One of the first servers for Tim Berners-Lee's then nascent World Wide Web, the Apache Web Server was created in 1994 as a fork of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) httpd Web server. It quickly became the most widely used Web server software. In 1999, the volunteer developers behind the software set up the ASF to provide organizational, legal, and financial support for the project. ASF now hosts 150 other open source projects, including the Apache Hadoop data processing framework, the Cassandra data store, the Lucene search engine, and the Tomcat Java servlet container.

Joab Jackson covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Joab on Twitter at @Joab_Jackson. Joab's e-mail address is Joab_Jackson@idg.com

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: Apache, Apache Software Foundation, CSA, IDG, Microsoft, NCSA, Netcraft
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: Apache Software Foundation, open source, software
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • Optimised License Management for the Datacenter
    Optimised license management is a necessity for all licenses owned by the enterprise. While organisations are starting to understand their license position for the desktop estate, the reality is that licensing in the datacenter presents a daunting set of challenges that require a robust, automated license management solution. Learn about how to address the unique license management requirements of all enterprise IT environments including the desktop and the datacenter.
    Learn more »
  • Simplifying branch office security
    Securing your business network is more important than ever. Malware, botnets and other malicious programs threaten your network—at your central offices and your branch offices alike. Yet enforcing consistent network security throughout your enterprise can be challenging—especially for those of you with branch offices with few users and no IT expertise. This paper introduces a new standard—an innovative, unified, cost-effective solution for managing branch office security, with centralised reporting and a clear process for determining return on investment (ROI).
    Learn more »
  • Collaborative software delivery: Managing today’s complex environment to improve software quality
    IBM Rational Team Concert software can help simplify, automate and govern the delivery process. Based on the open standards Jazz platform, it offers a lean collaborative application life cycle management (ALM) solution with integrated planning, work-item tracking, version control, build management and reporting.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.