Posts Tagged ‘apache’

What is Apache? How it Affects Your Websites

Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

Apache Defined -  What It Is, What It Does, And How It Affects Your Business…

What is Apache?

Apache, is an HTTP web server that is developed and maintained by an open community of developers under the Apache Software Foundation.  “The Apache HTTP Server Project is an effort to develop and maintain an open-source HTTP server for modern operating systems including UNIX and Windows NT. The goal of this project is to provide a secure, efficient and extensible server that provides HTTP services in sync with the current HTTP standards.”

Apache is noted for having had an integral role in the initial growth and development of the World Wide Web and was the first practical alternative to the Netscape Communications Corporation web server.  Today, Apache rivals the biggest Unix based servers in functionality and performance. 

Uses

Apache used to serve both static content and dynamic Web pages on the World Wide Web.   The quick and dirty definition of a server is a Software that sends web site pages back to browsers.  The benefit of Apache is that it is

Apache is used for many other tasks where content needs to be made available in a secure and reliable way. One example is sharing files from a personal computer over the Internet. A user who has Apache installed on their desktop can put arbitrary files in the Apache’s document root which can then be shared.

Additionally, some programmers test their web application code on a local server, installed with Apache.  Programmers developing web applications often use a locally installed version of Apache in order to preview and test code as it is being developed.

What does it mean to you?

If you host your own website, or plan to, then you will need a server.  Apache has many benefits that are discussed in the next section.  Among them is the fact that it is free and it is extremely stable and widely acceptable.  But what if you don’t host your own website?  Why should you care about Apache?  Maybe you won’t, however if you’re doing any kind of programming, say you’re going to add some scripts or applications to your website, you will want to make sure the language you use is compatible with Apache. 

Benefits
 
Quite simply, Apache is free. 

It is available for a wide variety of operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Novell NetWare, Linux and Mac OS X.

Apache supports a variety of common language interfaces including mod_perl, mod_python, Tcl, and PHP.

Virtual hosting allows one Apache installation to serve many different websites.

Apache features configurable error messages, which will help guide your visitors to the right area of your website rather than lose them all together.

Apache can run on virtually any hardware platform, which means you don’t have to go out and buy new hardware.

Apache is extremely secure, partially because it has such a long history and is so widely used.  The open source nature of it also means that there are a committed group of people working on making Apache the best server software available.

Apache interfaces with just about any database including commercial products like Oracle, Sybase, DB2, and Informix and open source databases like MySQL. This is important if you want to access statistics about your website traffic and usage, if you want to track customer information, orders, accounting numbers and reports, create forms, forums, and other various database uses.

Apache is generally safe from the variety of viruses that commonly attach Microsoft Web servers.

Because of its size and success, Apache has attracted numerous developers from around the world. These wonderful developers have created modules, or blocks of code designed to do things like letting you run CGI scripts whenever a file of a certain type is requested. Many of these modules can be found at http://modules.apache.org/.  And Apache is intuitive enough that it is easy to create a module if you can’t find what you need and there are many books written on the subject.

While tech support is not what you might get from a commercial software product, a product you’ve paid tons of money for, Apache does offer bug reporting services, forums to discuss how to solve problems and they are quick to find solutions to bugs and security issues.  Additionally, any security issues or bugs reported are posted on the organization’s website along with updates to resolve them and users can subscribe to a mailing list to receive bug reports and updates in your email box.

Drawbacks

Apache has of late, since 2006, lost some of its market share.  Most of this share has been lost to Microsoft Internet Information Services and the .NET platform.

No real technical support.  Here is the quote you will find on the Apache website, “With millions of users and fewer than sixty volunteer developers, we cannot provide personal support for Apache. For free support, we suggest participating in a user forum.”  That being said, there are numerous commercial support companies available. 

Bottom Line

Even if you never decide to host your own website, plan to set up a web server, or even want to test code before you integrate it into your website, it is helpful, and beneficial to educate yourself about the uses and benefits of Apache simply because it affects your business.  As your company grows you will likely want your website to be more than a static page.  Apache, and all of its flexibility, enables your business website to not only become more interactive but to provide you a number of resources to research and connect with your customers.  Apache is sponsored by Google, Yahoo, and HP just to name a few which means it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.  Plus…it’s free!

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What Is MySQL And Does Your Business Need It?

Saturday, January 12th, 2008

What Is MySQL And Does Your Business Need It?

What is MySQL?  

First released in May 23, 1995, MySQL is an open source database software.  It is part of a large and growing family of open source software including Linux, Apache, and programming languages PHP and Perl. 

However, unlike many open source products where the copyright is owned by the individual authors or distributors, MySQL is owned and sponsored by a single for-profit firm, MySQL AB, which holds the copyright to most of the codebase. They develop and maintain the system, sell support, service contracts, and proprietary-licensed copies of MySQL.

MySQL is a relationship database, which is a collection of items or tables organized into predefined categories or described tables from which data can be accessed or reassembled in many different ways without having to reorganize the database tables.  This format is enormously popular with more than 100 million copies of the software downloaded over the life of MySQL.  The popularity stems from the fact that the databases are easy to create and access.  Additionally, they are easy to extend, a new data category can be added without requiring that all existing applications be modified.

When creating a relational database, you can not only extend the data, you can define the domain of possible values in a data column and any additional constraints that you want to apply to the value of your data.  This makes your information significantly more valuable and user friendly.

Uses of MySQL

There are many uses of MySQL for a business and you can find many significant case studies at http://www.MySQL.com/why-MySQL/case-studies/.  Among them are many stories about how information generated from MySQL has saved IT teams thousands of man hours and thousands of dollars. 

Here’s an example of how you can use it for your business.  Consider a typical order entry database.  It might include the following columns for customer information:  name, address, and phone number.  

Another table might describe an order and have these columns: product, customer, date, and sales price.  This table and the relevant information could be used to show a report on all customers that bought products on a specific date. A financial services manager in the same company could, from the same tables, obtain a report on accounts that needed to be paid.

Craigslist uses MySQL to power more than 50 forums, among many other things, and Yahoo Finance uses it to aggregate headlines for its website.

Benefits of MySQL

Ease of use.   A basic knowledge of SQL and database manipulation is required however MySQL is logical and easy to use. This means you don’t have to spend as much time and money either training existing staff, or hiring developers.

Security. There are not a lot of databases that can compare to the security that MySQL offers.  It includes solid data security layers that protect your sensitive information.  Rights can be set to allow some or all privileges to either individuals or groups. Passwords are encrypted.  The access to your database can be controlled by a remote machine that can completely control what a user can view. The system can be locked down even more through the operating system.

Capacity and memory.  MySQL can handle almost any amount of data from only a few rows to as much as 50 million rows or more.  The default file size limit is about 4 GB.  It manages memory very well, which means it functions efficiently and speedily without crashing or dumping your information.  Additionally, MySQL server has been thoroughly tested to prevent memory leaks.

Unbeatable flexibility.  MySQL runs on many operating systems, including Novell NetWare, Windows, Linux, and UNIX

It supports several development interfaces including JDBC, ODBC, and scripting languages including PHP and Perl.  This enables you to create database solutions that run on all major operating systems, including Linux, UNIX, and Windows.

More than one person can access business information at a time. This means that a large group of people can access the information at once but there can also be several connections at one time.

Multiple storage engines, or types of table, allow you to choose which one is most effective.

Commit grouping, gathering multiple transactions from multiple connections together to increase the number of commits per second.

Technical support.  One of the drawbacks to many open source products is the fact that the support is sometimes nonexistent or slow to respond at best.  The products are free or close to free so it’s a trade off.  However, MySQL Enterprise offers support itself, including 24/7 30-minute response time and the support team has direct access to the software developers.

Licensing.  We’ve already discussed the fact that open source products are extremely cost efficient!  MySQL AB makes MySQL Server available as free software, but they also offer the MySQL Enterprise subscription offering for business users and dual-license it under traditional proprietary licensing arrangements for cases where the intended use is incompatible with the General Public License agreement.

Drawbacks of MySQL

Early versions of MySQL lacked many standard relational database management system (RDBMS) features, usually with the goal of trading guaranteed accuracy for speed. Many (but not yet all) such criticisms have been remedied in later versions of the software, including transactions and relational integrity constraints.

Some say that MySQL’s feature list leaves something to be desired, but its fans swear that a scaled-down feature set means you only have to deploy, configure and maintain what you need.

There are also a few common errors such as out of memory or packet too large they generally relate to the configuration of the server and are uncommon and the errors are fairly easy to remedy. 

Bottom Line:

The uses of MySQL are seemingly endless and for a business the information gathered is priceless. Combined with PHP, it can be used to create dynamic web pages.  If you’re using any type of web 2.0 technology like forums, online ordering, subscription forms etc…must utilize a database of some sort to gather and analyze the information.  When it comes to database technology, there really isn’t anything that beats MySQL for stability, price, and ease of use. 

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