How Nginx is Rapidly Conquering the Web Server Industry

The tug of war between the two web server whales, IIS and Apache was on in 2008. A hunt was on for a vigorous and super-stable open source server capable of handling a cornucopia of web connections at the same time. It was then when Nginx, pronounced as “Engine X” started to take off and, at that time, little did anyone had the clue of its indomitable success in the next 6 years! Nginx was born back in 2002 by Igor Sysoev, a Russian systems administrator.

 
Why??
 

In the present web servers’ landscape, when even the best of the best names are struggling to survive, Nginx is rapidly climbing up the software ladder. The primary contributing factors for its unsurpassed success encompass:

 

Nginx DOES NOT accommodate non-essential elements. Its philosophy of keeping space for only the principle features ensures a dedicated as well as low priced server service.
 
The booming server software is capable of handling umpteenth numbers of web connections all at the same time.
 
The open source software allows anyone to use and customize as required and that too for free.
 
Nginx excels in handling voluminous traffic, much more than any other open source option.
 
The web server software’s performance on multi-core and multiprocessor systems and its potential to tie-up with more web clients without seizing the memory of the system surpasses the capacities of other server alternatives.

 

How??

 

The little Russian server software which got first picked up way back in 2003 by sites like Zvuki, Estonian and Rambler could fetch only 100 users by 2005. Majority of the documentation being in Russian, the English speakers faced difficulty in adopting it. However, in 2006, the Russian software has steadily overcome the language barrier with the help of its English patrons who have been posting on its discussion list as well as Russian language speakers in different countries who have been making the configuration files viral and translating the documentation actively.

 

What followed next was a series of names clinging on to Nginx as the one and only impeccable platform. The realization of the Russian software being a hit was felt by Sysoev when he received a voluntary donation of $3, 500 from Automattic’s founder, Matt Mullenweg.

 

The Facts

  

According to the February 2014 Web Server Survey conducted by Netcraft, Nginx ranks 3rd amongst web servers which serve all domains and 2nd amongst those which cater to active sites. Another recent survey conducted by W3Techs, the open source software was the favourite of 21.5% of all top one million websites. As per BuiltWith, 20.8% of the top ten thousand sites depend on the Russian software.

 

Today, Nginx is on its way of conquering the whole web server globe powering Facebook, CloudFlare, Netflix, Automattic and WordPress to name just a few. Last year, Sysoev introduced Nginx Plus and with over a hundred million web sites under his belt he is ready to receive the rewards for his pet project started 12 years back!