Apache vs Nginx

Lighttpd vs Nginx

What Facebook has done is combine the two in to a practical use for the consumer. This was enabled by the advent of cheaper cpu, hard drive space and direct communication with the consumer.

This leads to the question “What scientific or other methods that exist today which may of been around for decades, centuries or thousands of years which are well tested that can be applied to current business in a way that was not previously available ?”

The next question is about the future, given what we know is that cpu, ram, disk space and networks are going to be come much more available in the future. Much larger models and more data is going to be able to collected.

“What methods will we be able to apply in the near future ?”

Then, getting to the future before it happens.

“Can the methods be refined in anticipation of this availability vs waiting for the availability before starting the planning/development ?”

A simple application of this is computer screen size for mobile devices. We all ready know that computing is moving away from the desktop. (100% growth in a year ?)

Mobile vs Desktop stat counter

For example a Pizza chain can create an application to order Pizza from their cell phone, using the gps to narrow down their location, credit card processing on the phone to speed the process.

By the time 2 % becomes 10 % the stores which developed and refined their mobile app will have a very strong lead on those who have not. In a tight market this could make the difference between being the leader or being in fifth with a shrinking customer base. Though, you still need to make good pizza.

My suggestion is while you think about it order up some Pizza from Pizza Hut on a iphone Pizza Hut

A worth while look is
Sun Bin

Sun Bin on Wikipedia

Hosting – http://inetu.com , http://rackspace.com , http://rackforce.com , http://mediatemple.net

Backup – http://www.bacula.org

Monitoring – Nagios , WebSitePluse

Configuration – http://www.parallels.com/plesk/ Plesk

Virtualization – http://vmware.com and http://xen.org

Testing – WebTest http://webtest.canoo.com

Before selecting how to setup the infrastructure for a web business the following parameters typically need to be defined.

1. Budget
2. Development timeline and traffic ramp up time line
3. Bandwidth
4. Software
5. Hardware
6. Data storage
7. Backup
8. Security
9. Monitoring
10. Maintenance

A typical set of questions I ask are

How long before you plan on releasing a live site and begin a advertising campaign ?
How many people are going to be visiting the site ?
What time of day are they visiting ?
Are they visiting at the same time, if so how often and how many at once ?
What are the sources of traffic paid online advertising, non paid search results, facebook, traditional advertising tv,radio or print ?
What geographic areas are they visiting from ?
What and how much are they going to be looking at, Pictures, Video, Text ?
What are how much they going to be sending to you, Pictures, Video, Text ?
How long are they staying ?
What are the low traffic periods going to be ?
Can there be blackouts for maintenance ?
How patient are they and fast do they expect the site to be ?
What type of data is being saved ?
How much data is being saved ?
How important is this data ?
Is the data personal and private ?
Who will maintain the servers and software ?
Where is design and development going to test ?
What is the monthly and setup budget available for running the site ?
What platforms are going to be used ?
Are there any remote api’s used which are high in volume or critical ?

The proper balance can provide a well oiled system which can be expanded when needed.

It is a large enough problem that the FBI has gone after networks to shut them down.

http://newhaven.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel11/nh041311.htm

A good start for a Web standards check list written by Russ Weakley.

http://www.maxdesign.com.au/articles/checklist/

The Apple Human Interface Guidelines is a worth while reference as well.

http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/AppleHIGuidelines/XHIGIntro/XHIGIntro.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000957

The w3 validator is a good tool to quickly validate your html code on your web site to verify that the site is compliant as well.


W3 Markup Validation Service

Here is a script to preform out bound link tracking.
http://blog.immeria.net/2009/01/google-analytics-script-to-track.html

The new breed of statistics are very similar and much more readily available.
http://compete.com/
http://www.quantcast.com
http://www.alexa.com