High Availability and Fault tolerance on Websites
All websites are eligible candidates for high availability and increased fault tolerance. Be it static, or dynamic websites. This article discusses the benefits of increasing website reliability including high availability and fault tolerance.
High availability
High availability is a term that describes the ability of a website to remain online and accessible to users, even when faced with various challenges and disruptions. A website that has high availability can handle high traffic volumes, hardware failures, software errors, network issues, and malicious attacks, without compromising its performance or functionality.
High availability is important for websites that rely on their online presence for their business or reputation. For example, an e-commerce site that sells products or services, a news site that delivers timely information, or a blog that attracts loyal readers. If these websites experience downtime or slow loading, they can lose customers, revenue, trust, and ranking.
To achieve high availability, websites need to implement various strategies and technologies that can enhance their reliability and resilience. Some of these include:
DNS load balancing
This means distributing the website’s traffic across multiple servers or locations, using the domain name system (DNS) to provide different IP addresses in response to DNS queries. DNS load balancing improves the website’s performance, scalability, and availability, by preventing overloading and balancing the workload . At tkwebhosts.co.uk, we use DNS load balancing to route our users to the nearest and least busy server, ensuring fast and consistent service.
Region based replication
This means replicating the website’s data and resources across different geographic regions, using services such as Amazon S3 Replication or Azure Cross-Region Replication. Region based replication ensures that data is durable and available, even if the primary region is not recoverable . At tkwebhosts.co.uk, we use region based replication to backup our data and content to another region, providing us with disaster recovery and data sovereignty options.
Global caching
This means storing frequently accessed or static data, such as images, videos, or web pages, in a fast and temporary storage system, such as memory or disk, that is distributed across the globe. Global caching reduces the website’s response time, bandwidth usage, and server load, by serving the data from the cache instead of fetching it from the original source . At tkwebhosts.co.uk, we use global caching to deliver our web artifacts and media files to our users from the closest location, improving their user experience and satisfaction.
Database caching
This means storing the results of common or complex database queries, such as product details, customer reviews, or order history, in a fast and temporary storage system, such as memory or disk. Database caching minimizes the reads to the database, reducing the database load, latency, and cost, by serving the data from the cache instead of executing the query again . At tkwebhosts.co.uk, we use database caching to speed up our dynamic web pages and applications, providing our users with up-to-date and relevant information.
CDN hosting
This means hosting the website’s static files, such as images, videos, stylesheets, or scripts, on a content delivery network (CDN), which is a network of servers that are geographically distributed and optimized for delivering web content. CDN hosting reduces the latency and bandwidth usage, by serving the static files from the server that is closest to the user . At tkwebhosts.co.uk, we use CDN hosting to improve our website’s performance and security, providing our users with fast and reliable web content.
Minification
This means removing unnecessary or redundant data, such as whitespace, comments, or unused code, from the website’s HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. Minification reduces the size and complexity of the files, improving the website’s loading speed and efficiency . At tkwebhosts.co.uk, we use minification to optimize our website’s code and design, providing our users with a smooth and responsive web experience.
These are some of the main aspects of high availability for websites. By applying these strategies and technologies, websites can ensure that they can deliver a consistent and satisfying user experience, regardless of the challenges and disruptions they may encounter.