Goodbye Apache, it’s been good… we don’t regret our time together, but we’ve found someone else.
Our SysAdmins have been extra busy lately and we can now announce that Litespeed has been successfully deployed across our entire fleet of shared and reseller hosting servers.
Whilst we have touched on this in an earlier blog, we felt that it really deserved it’s very own post as there is much to tell you about this change and why it is a good one!
First up, what is Apache and Litespeed? Both of them fall under the category of Web Server Software. Essentially, it is the environment loaded onto a server to run and manage all of the server’s services and functions.
Previously, the king-pin of the web server software world was Apache. It was created back in 1995 by a group of tech-enthusiasts wanting a way to build their own websites. It has evolved ever since to become one of the most trusted and stable server environments in the world, handling nearly 60% of all website traffic.
Since 2002 however, there has been a new kid on the block, growing slowly and steadily in its own right to finally blossom into a formidable competitor that can handle almost double the amount of traffic as Apache can using the same hardware.
Due to security concerns, we’ve held off making this change in the past. But with those issues now no longer a factor, it was time to make the jump.
This upgrade will increase performance and reliability as well as reduce resource-consumption, paving the way for even further enhancements to our shared-hosting platform in the near future.
Additionally, you should observe significantly improved performance of serving static files, PHP, Perl and CGI content. Server response times will be significantly faster, and additional protection against malicious attacks ensures even more consistent uptime.
Our Tech Ops Manager Mastermind, Paul, reports that 99% of websites have received an improved response time of around at least 15%, while many have received significantly higher response time improvements of anywhere up to 1000%.
This graph shows memory usage up to and immediately after the cut-over to Litespeed:
As you can see, this graph shows the memory usage before and after the change to Litespeed. The drastic change towards the right hand side shows a significant drop in the memory being used on our servers after the cut-over to Litespeed occurred.
If you have any further questions or are finding any unusual happenings since the change, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us on 1300 694 678 or submit a ticket through OnePanel. We’d be more than happy to help!
