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Ebook from NGINX: 5 Reasons to Switch
to Software forLoad Balancing
by Floyd Smith
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Who Are We?
Floyd SmithTechnical Marketing Writer
Formerly:• Sr. Technical Writer, Apple• Group Channel Manager, Altavista• Author of best-selling technology
books
Faisal MemonProduct Marketer
Formerly:• Sr. Technical Marketing Engineer,
Riverbed• Technical Marketing Engineer, Cisco• Software Engineer, Cisco
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Who Are You?Job TitlesSolutions ArchitectLinux AdminHead of EngineeringCEOSr. Agile Delivery ManagerDevOpsSr. Full Stack SW DevSystem and Network EngineerComputer ScientistAndroid DeveloperMarketing Ops ManagerOrganization Types
FoodsTechnology consultancyCRM providerNetworking tech supplierLarge auto makerUS federal agencyInsurance companyMovie studioOnline hotel roomsAccountancy/consultancyHosting providerNGINXReasons for Attending“Interesting perspective”
“…if NGINX would benefit…”“Infrastructure”“Saving cost”“Key for application scaling”“Microservices, scale”“Moving from HW ADC”“Friend uses NGINX for ms.”“Migrate from F5 in 1-2 yrs.”“NGINX+ makes sense?”“We are aggregators”“I love NGINX”
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• Solves the C10K problem• First OSS release in 2004• NGINX Plus released in 2013• VC-backed by industry leaders• 800-plus customers• 90-plus employees
The Rapid Growth of NGINX
160 milliontotal sites
running on NGINX
6Source: Netcraft June 2016 Web Server Survey
51%of the top 10,000busiest websites
7Source: W3Techs Web Technology Survey
36%of all sites on
Amazon Web Services
8Source: W3Techs December 2013 Web Server Survey
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Where NGINX Fits
Internet
Web ServerServe content from disk
Application GatewayFastCGI, uWSGI, Passenger…
Reverse ProxyCaching, load balancing…
HTTP traffic
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Modern Web, Modern Architecture
From Monolithic...Three-tier, J2EE-style
architecturesComplex protocols (HTML, SOAP)
Persistent deploymentsFixed, static infrastructure
Big-bang releasesSilo’ed teams (Dev, Test, Ops)
...to DynamicMicroservicesLightweight (REST, messaging)Mutable (containers, VMs)SDN, NFV, cloudContinuous deliveryDevOps culture
Why DevOps + NGINX =• Software load balancing goes hand in hand with cloud deployments• Variety of load-balancing methods gives flexibility and performance• On-the-fly reconfiguration supports service discovery and uptime• Application health checks give early warning of problems• Robust, customizable monitoring increases uptime
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Results More than 70,000 rps and 15
Gbps from 36 NGINX servers Peaks at 20,000 rps per server Reconfigure and update on-the-
fly
Challenge Expense of 10 pairs of F5 BIG-
IP servers for 10 data centers Needed on-the-fly
reconfiguration Limited to 1,000 rps per
server
Solution Test NGINX on Gravatar Move from F5 to NGINX Gain small and predictable
memory and CPU footprints
In Action: WordPress.com drops F5 BIG-IP for NGINX; load balancing >10,000 rps per server
Results Massive improvements in
speed, flexibility, and ease of use
On-the-fly reconfiguration = no manual restarts, dropped sessions
Improved security w/SSL offloading, role-based management
Challenge Dropped sessions for citizens,
e.g. in middle of filling out a large form
Ops changes required a restart
Big quarterly spikes in transaction traffic due to large payment app
Solution Upgrade from servers running
Pound to NGINX Plus NGINX Plus on different
hypervisors and data centers Operates as dynamic reverse
proxy, routing requests in real time
In Action: Montana Interactive chooses NGINX Plus for high-availability load balancing
Results Fantastic performance with
connections pooled on frontend
Use configuration language to customize for backend app
Enhanced security with TLS SNI and customizable logs
Challenge Recover from and prevent
DDoS attacks Needed fast, fault-tolerant,
easy to configure frontend Needed better performance,
security, and scalability
Solution NGINX Plus in frontend
application layer Host NGINX Plus in Amazon
Web Services as traffic frontline
No changes to backend servers running Microsoft .NET app
In Action: BuyDig.com gets scalability and security with no code changes to .NET app
Summary1. Cut costs2. DevOps fit3. Deploy everywhere4. Adapt quickly5. No weird contractual constraints
Ebook from NGINX: 5 Reasons to Switch
to Software for Load Balancing
https://www.nginx.com/resources/library/five-reasons-software-load-balancer/
by Floyd Smith
Key points1. You need the money for current and new IT
priorities2. We get calls at contract deadlines (!)3. We get calls on traffic spikes4. Comparison to F5: 75%+ savings5. Comparison to Citrix: 70%+ savings
Dramatically reduce costs without sacrificing featuresor performance
1.
From NGINX Plus vs. F5
From NGINX Plus vs. Citrix
Key points1. DevOps and NGINX are a perfect fit2. Developers want flexibility to change architecture3. Operations people want flexibility to change
architecture4. Can’t do CI/CD with hardware 5. “Can’t move your hardware ADC to Amazon’s data
center”
Moving to DevOps requires software app delivery
2.
Key points1. Great price/performance on in-house servers2. No comparison for public, private, hybrid cloud3. Application architecture is independent of delivery
platform4. Load balance from in-house servers to cloud 5. Move to the cloud with NGINX Plus
Deploy everywherewith one ADC solution
3.
Key points1. Need to quickly add servers2. Need to quickly add server pairs for HA3. Can’t wait for hardware to be ordered, delivered,
received, tested, and iRuled4. Can’t wait for network operations et al to approve
changes5. Far less overhead for new project approval
Adapt quickly to changing demands on your applications
4.
Key points1. Throughput limits for hardware ADCs are
contractual caps2. Force page revisions and new feature delays3. More business = bad news4. Caps as low as 0.5 Gbps (Citrix entry-level), 5 Gbps
(F5 entry-level)5. Comparable NGINX Plus throughput is 20 Gbps, 35
Gbps, etc. – recommendations, not hard caps
No artificial or contract-driven constraints on performance
5.
Resources
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1. Automattic/WordPress.com case study
2. Montana Interactive case study
3. Buydig.com case study
4. Load balancing ebook
5. NGINX vs. F5 comparison
6. NGINX vs. Citrix comparison
7. nginx.conf 2016
8. NGINX Plus free trial, contact Sales, or call (800) 915-9122
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Questions?
Thank Younginx.com | @nginx
