What is Nginx ?

Why Nginx is better than other web servers | Nginx use cases

Nginx is a open-source web server . Nginx is very popular among web server. Because is designed in asynchronous architecture and follow event-driven nature. Therefore nginx can handle large number of connections effectively . It uses very limited memory and resources also it can handle lots of concurrent requests at same time. Nginx can be use for many use cases .

Reverse proxy

It is the most use case of nginx . So reverse proxy is a server that act as a intermediate between client and the server. Main responsibility is handling client requests and forwarding the requests to required backend server. We can change the configurations of nginx by accessing the nginx.conf file in nginx.

Load balancing

Nginx can be use for load balancing for backend servers . we can set load balancing configurations using above mentioned nginx.conf file . there are few load balancing types we can implement round robin, sticky load balancing (using when there are sessions used in the servers ), path load balancing , rational load balancing (used when deploying new versions )

Web-Sockets

Nginx can be used to handle WebSocket connections and proxy the traffic to backent servers.

Handles Static contents.

In order to host static websites we need web server. Nginx can be used to handle static contents.

Caching

Nginx can be used to cache frequently accessing contents , so that load to the backend servers are decreased . And it’s improves to performance and decreases the latency.

TLS / SSl termination

Normally when we use SSL or TLS encryptions our backend servers performs decryption processes. We can do it from our nginx and so that the backend servers can have better performance and also it simplifies certificate management . TLS authentications are more efficient and support encrypted communication channels

Thank you for reading.