Nginx (pronounced “engine-x”) was created by Igor Sysoev in 2004 to solve the C10K problem – handling 10,000 concurrent connections. At the time, popular web servers like Apache struggled with high concurrency.

Before Nginx, Apache was (and still is) a widely used web server. While Apache is powerful and flexible, it can be resource-intensive, especially under high loads. Other options included Microsoft’s Internet Information Services (IIS) for Windows servers.

Nginx: The internet’s traffic cop

Imagine the internet as a busy city. Nginx is like a highly efficient traffic management system:

• It directs visitors (web traffic) to the right places (servers)
• It keeps traffic flowing smoothly, even during rush hour (high load times)
• It stops troublemakers (malicious attacks) from causing problems

Why Nginx matters

In technical terms, Nginx is a web server and reverse proxy. In practical terms, it’s a tool that can:

1. Make your website faster, often outperforming Apache in serving static content
2. Handle more visitors without crashing, addressing the concurrency issues of traditional servers
3. Improve security by acting as a buffer between the internet and your application servers
4. Simplify complex setups, replacing multiple specialized tools with a single, flexible solution

Nginx in action

We’ve seen Nginx transform website performance:

• An e-commerce site used Nginx to handle a surge of Black Friday shoppers without slowing down, something their previous Apache setup struggled with
• A media company used Nginx to efficiently serve videos to millions of viewers, replacing a costly proprietary streaming server
• A software-as-a-service provider used Nginx to securely manage access to their application, improving on the basic reverse proxy capabilities of their old setup

How we work with Nginx

Our team doesn’t just set up Nginx – we optimize it for your specific needs. We can:

• Configure Nginx to make your existing websites faster and more reliable
• Use Nginx as a load balancer to distribute traffic across multiple servers
• Set up Nginx as a reverse proxy to add a layer of security to your web applications

With Nginx, your web presence becomes more robust, capable of handling whatever the internet throws at it. It’s not just about keeping your website online – it’s about ensuring it performs at its best, all the time.