Tom Ford
130313999
Abstract
This article outlines the pros and cons of different web servers. The main features of web servers in
general has been researched and listed with the benefits that they provide. Current trends of web
servers has been reviewed in this article which is used to analyse the reasons for why some servers
have greater popularity than others. Discussed also in this article are the reasons behind the groupings
of particular web server technologies and speculation is made regarding future developments.
Introduction
Web infrastructure is essentially the backend layout of a website. A web server uses a modular
architecture that enables the possibility to generate dynamic content as a response to requests made
from clients (Docs.oracle.com, 2015). Client requests are dealt with by the server responding with
relevant files that are required for the requested web pages. This is achieved with the use of HTTP
(Hypertext Transfer Protocol). Server extensions give the opportunity to extend or replace the
function of the server to better suit the requirements that are needed of the website owner. Within a
web server solution stack there is an: operating system, web server, database and a programming
language. These different pieces of software work together to function as a web server that can deal
with requests. Dynamic web pages are processed server side. An example of a server-side language is
PHP which often uses Common Gateway Interface (CGI) which produces the dynamic web page for
the client. CGI is a standard protocol that allows the web server to be able to communicate with
external programs. When server-side scripts are required to be ran the web server identifies that the
resource requires CGI access. An external program is needed to process this so an appropriate
programming technology is used. The output is then passed back to the web server via CGI again and
the response is then finally returned to the client that requested it.
Using information from netcraft.com it shows that the market share for web servers of all sites is led
by Apache (News.netcraft.com, 2015). In January 2015 348,460,753 sites had Apache as their web
server. This is a 39.74% market share. However, this percentage is much lower than what it has been
in previous years. Back in 2011 Apache had a 65% share and has slowly began decreasing. Microsoft
slowly began to take some of the market with the release of IIS/8.0 which boosted their share from
14% to 36% from the years 2012 to mid-2014. Microsoft have lost 10% of their market share from
that time until now (2015) with Apache regaining a higher market share of 39.74%.
When looking at the market share for active sites it gives a much clearer representation of which
servers are actually most popular and current. Apache still clearly shows leadership sitting at 51%.
However Microsoft is sitting much lower at 11% amongst the likes of nginx, Google and the rest of
the server providers. This indicates that there is a lot of sites that use Microsoft server however a large
amount of them are not active (News.netcraft.com, 2015).
Another web server trend which is important to consider is what the highest traffic websites are using.
Another graph produced from data gathered by netcraft.com indicates that overall Apache is the
leading server but for the top 100,000 websites nginx is the market leader. Nginx market share also
noticeably increases looking further towards the top websites also with market share for top 1,000
websites being 45.8% (News.netcraft.com, 2015). This indicates that nginx handles high traffic a lot
better.
Tom Ford
130313999
Features of web servers
The main feature of a web server is to locate resources specified in the URL. Web servers exist to
publish data to the public. Path translation is the ability to map the URL into either a local file system
for static requests or an internal/ external program for dynamic requests. Server side scripting allows
external running of applications that enables the web server to be turned into a dynamic engine based
on the requests made from the client with the use of CGI, PHP, SSI etc.
Access to the public is a large requirement for the majority of websites. However, there are some
instances where access must be restricted. Access control is a feature that is important where
information must be restricted. An example of this would be only allowing access from a specific IP
address or the opposite way around of blocking a specific IP. More complex features include the likes
of encrypted communications. This provides a means to protect sensitive data. Secure Socket Layers
(SSL) are used as a means to offer an encrypted link between a client and a server. An example of
how an SSL would be operate and be beneficial is for the transmitting of confidential data between a
customer and a business for online purchases. An SSL operates by communication between web
server and client browser which checks whether the SSL Certificate provided by the server is trusted,
if so then communication proceeds (Digicert.com, 2015).
Features
Apache
Microsoft IIS
Nginx
Authentication
Yes
Yes
Yes
HTTPS Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
CGI Support
Yes
Yes
No
Java Servlets
No
No
No
SSI
Yes
Yes
Yes
Figure 1. (Socialcompare.com, 2015) Feature comparison of current web servers.
Jetty
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
In the future web servers will have further orientation to catering for higher amounts of traffic. I
speculate this due to the continuous increase of the number of devices with the ability to access the
web. As more and more people use the internet and web traffic increases the need for catering to
higher traffic will be more important.
References
Docs.oracle.com, (2015) Web Server Architecture (Oracle iPlanet Web Server 7.0.9 Developer's
Guide). [Online]. 2015. Available at: https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19146-01/8211829/abwah/index.html. (Accessed: 8 December 2015).
News.netcraft.com, (2015) January 2015 Web Server Survey | Netcraft. [Online]. 2015. Available at:
http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2015/01/15/january-2015-web-server-survey.html. (Accessed: 8
December 2015).
Socialcompare.com, (2015) Comparison of Web servers | Comparison tables - SocialCompare.
[Online]. 2015. Available at: http://socialcompare.com/en/comparison/comparison-of-web-servers.
(Accessed: 16 December 2015).
Digicert.com, (2015) What Is SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)? | DigiCert.com. [Online]. 2015. Available
at: https://www.digicert.com/ssl.htm. (Accessed: 16 December 2015).
Donnie Berkholz's Story of Data, (2014) GitHub language trends and the fragmenting landscape.
[Online]. 2014. Available at: http://redmonk.com/dberkholz/2014/05/02/github-language-trends-andthe-fragmenting-landscape/. (Accessed: 16 December 2015).
