How can you reduce server load and latency?

Server load and latency are two key factors that affect the performance and user experience of your web applications. High server load means that your server is handling too many requests or processing too much data, which can result in slow response times, errors, or crashes. High latency means that there is a long delay between the client and the server, which can cause frustration, impatience, or abandonment of your web pages. In this article, you will learn some practical ways to reduce server load and latency and improve your web development skills.

1 Use caching

Caching is a technique that stores frequently used or static data in a fast and accessible location, such as the browser, the server, or a proxy. This can reduce the number of requests to your server, the amount of data transferred, and the processing time, as well as improve the user experience by loading web pages faster and reducing bandwidth consumption. There are several common caching methods, such as browser caching which uses HTTP headers like Cache-Control and Expires to store web resources without requesting them again from the server. Server caching involves frameworks, libraries, or plugins to store dynamic content from the server memory or disk instead of generating it from the database or other sources. Lastly, proxy caching uses a proxy server like Nginx or Varnish to act as an intermediary between the client and the server, and cache web resources or content for multiple users.

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Rajan Gupta

WordPress Developer | Web Design | Gutenberg Block Creation and Maintenance | Shopify Theme Developer | Speed & Performance Optimization
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Early in my career as a WordPress Developer, I was tasked with revamping a client's website that was experiencing sluggish loading times and high server load. Users were growing increasingly frustrated with the slow page loads, leading to a decrease in engagement and potential conversions. This challenge pushed me to explore the power of caching and its impact on optimizing website performance. Here's how I approached it: 1. Browser Caching: 2. Server-side Caching 3. Proxy Caching The results were remarkable: - Improved Loading Times - Reduced Server Load - Enhanced User Experience

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Ali Farkhondepey

Experienced .NET Developer | .NET Core | Angular | TypeScript | Azure DevOps | Clean Architecture | Microservices Enthusiast | FHIR | Healthcare Data Specialist | Azure DevOps & AI-Powered Preauthorization Specialist
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We faced the challenge of loading 2000+ data entries via the .NET API while ensuring real-time client-side updates and avoiding redundant reloads on page refresh. We addressed this by implementing server-side pagination to reduce initial load times and memory usage. Following pagination, we explored client-side caching methods, particularly in the context of Angular: RxJS and Angular Services: Leveraging RxJS alongside Angular Services for efficient data management and real-time updates. LocalStorage and SessionStorage Service Workers and PWAs: Implementing Service Workers within a Progressive Web App (PWA) structure, enabling robust data caching for offline access. HTTP Interceptors Third-Party Libraries

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2 Optimize images

Images are often the most impactful web resources, as they can take up a lot of disk space, bandwidth, and processing time if not optimized. To reduce their file size, dimensions, and quality without compromising visual appearance, you can use tools such as ImageMagick or TinyPNG to compress images and remove unnecessary metadata. You can also use Photoshop or GIMP to resize images to match the display size on web pages. Additionally, WebP Converter or AVIF Encoder can be used to convert images to newer formats such as WebP or AVIF for better compression and quality than JPEG or PNG. Through these optimization techniques, you can improve server load and latency.

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Ali Farkhondepey

Experienced .NET Developer | .NET Core | Angular | TypeScript | Azure DevOps | Clean Architecture | Microservices Enthusiast | FHIR | Healthcare Data Specialist | Azure DevOps & AI-Powered Preauthorization Specialist
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Optimizing images in .NET and Angular is crucial for web performance. Images, being data-heavy, can strain disk space, bandwidth, and processing resources if not handled wisely. To tackle this challenge, consider various optimization techniques. Compression: Tools like ImageMagick and TinyPNG are invaluable for reducing file size while maintaining visual quality. They eliminate unnecessary metadata, ensuring faster load times. Resizing: Applications like Photoshop or GIMP or you can resize the picture on the server side. Newer Formats: Embrace modern formats like WebP or AVIF using converters like WebP Converter or AVIF Encoder. These formats offer superior compression and quality compared to traditional JPEG or PNG formats.

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3 Minify and bundle code

Code, such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files, can affect the server load and latency. These files may contain unnecessary characters, like whitespace, comments, or line breaks, that increase the file size and parsing time. Additionally, multiple files, like external libraries, plugins, or modules may be present in the code that increase the number of requests and loading time. To address this issue, minifying and bundling code is necessary. This involves removing unnecessary characters and combining multiple files into one or a few files. Examples of code minification and bundling tools are HTMLMinifier or html-minifier-terser for HTML files; CSSNano or CleanCSS for CSS files; UglifyJS or Terser for JavaScript files; and Webpack or Parcel to bundle code files and their dependencies. By doing this, you can reduce the loading time and improve efficiency.

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4 Use CDN

CDN stands for Content Delivery Network, which is a network of servers distributed across different locations that store and deliver your web resources or content to your users. By utilizing a CDN, you can reduce the server load and latency by offloading some or all of your web resources or content to the CDN servers, thereby reducing the load on your origin server and bandwidth consumption. Additionally, you can serve your web resources or content from the CDN servers that are closest to your users, thus reducing the distance and the network latency. Moreover, you can benefit from the CDN features, such as caching, compression, encryption, or optimization - all of which can enhance the performance and security of your web resources or content.

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Tomas Henkenhaf

Cadet-in-Training at Toronto Police Service
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In my experience optimizing server performance, I've found that using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a game-changer. Distributing content across multiple servers globally, drastically reduces server load and latency, ensuring faster and more reliable content delivery to users. I typically will implement a CDN with a global user base. If the web traffic is localized to the server, I will only use Caching and WebP optimization.

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5 Monitor and test

Monitoring and testing are essential steps to measure and improve your server load and latency. Monitoring involves collecting and analyzing data on your server performance, such as CPU usage, memory usage, disk usage, response time, error rate, or throughput. Testing means simulating and evaluating your server performance under different scenarios, such as normal load, peak load, or stress load. Through monitoring and testing, you can identify the sources and causes of your server load and latency such as inefficient code, slow database queries, or network congestion; fix issues and errors that affect your server load and latency like memory leaks, configuration errors, or security vulnerabilities; and optimize your server load and latency by tuning parameters, scaling resources, or balancing load.

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Noha Abdallah El Bokhary

Project Manager at Egyptian Radio And Tv Union Ertu
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Bad database design or configuration also cuase slow in server response so developers must check database performance to eliminate delays

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6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Ndono Karanja

Full stack Developer || Software developer
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Load Balancing: Distribute incoming traffic across multiple servers using load balancers. Thus preventing any single server from becoming overloaded. Moreover, Database Optimization: Optimize database queries, indexing, and caching to reduce database load and improve response times.

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How can you reduce server load and latency?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Use caching

2 Optimize images

3 Minify and bundle code

4 Use CDN

5 Monitor and test

6 Here’s what else to consider

Web Development

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How can you reduce server load and latency?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Use caching

2 Optimize images

3 Minify and bundle code

4 Use CDN

5 Monitor and test

6 Here’s what else to consider

Web Development

Rate this article

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