The fastest place to put your server is in your home. Compared to having things locally everything is slow. If you want a server for other people then it changes.
Like Bill and Hillary.
Where's the fastest place to put my server? How much does it matter?
101–110 of 124 posts
Re: Where's the fastest place to put my server? How much does it matter?
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
The applications I work on do several database calls for single user HTTP request. Shouldn't the application server be as close as possible to the database, rather than to the user? I struggle to think of an example where your model is useful, unless your application has no database.
All the cacheable responses (including assets) benefit from being close to the user.
I'd rather have my app and databases servers together, and let a separate CDN like Cloudfront handle cacheable responses and assets. Much simpler than trying to distribute the application itself.
Re: Where's the fastest place to put my server? How much does it matter?
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
The applications I work on do several database calls for single user HTTP request. Shouldn't the application server be as close as possible to the database, rather than to the user? I struggle to think of an example where your model is useful, unless your application has no database.
App servers should have a fast access to data! Which either means running caches alongside the app servers, or doing clever things with databases. We just released a preview Postgres + regional replicas. This setup keeps the postgres leader in one region and lets people add replicas in other regions they're interested in. It works really well for typical full stack apps. We've also found a surprising number of custom…
> regional replicas
For a read-dominated access pattern that sounds quite interesting.
Re: Where's the fastest place to put my server? How much does it matter?
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Presumably, it's 'of the list of places with a data-center meeting the specs we require' which, I imagine, limits the range of options somewhat.
No, it really is mostly about skiing (see above). Amsterdam, Frankfurt and (perhaps surprisingly) Marseilles are the places to go if you want to optimize for routing. Equinix has datacenters, with he.net POP, in all three places. You could do a lot worse than standardizing, globally, on EQX datacenters and he.net connectivity ...
How do you handle IPv6 given the squabble between HE and Cogent? Some internal routing and separate peering arrangements?
Re: Where's the fastest place to put my server? How much does it matter?
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
In addition to skiing, Switzerland's fantastic public transit gives you a huge array of options. My favourite day for guests is: - Train to Arth Goldau, optionally visit the zoo there - Train to Rigi Kulm (literally the top of a mountain, with some beautiful views) - Cable car or cogwheel railway to a ferry terminal on the Vierwaldstättersee - Ferry across the Vierwaldstättersee to Luzern - Train from Luzern back to…
I lived there in the early 90s and loved it. Coming from a small Canadian city, the idea that I could get somewhere good that wasn't rural and return home in a day, on a train, was just mind blowing. I also made 4x my Canadian wage as a cook. I was only there for 18 months but I seriously considered renewing my visa and staying. Ended up moving to Anaheim, CA. Big mistake. ;)
You don't like SoCal? Curious why you feel that way.
Re: Where's the fastest place to put my server? How much does it matter?
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
For point 1, is the depth of the ocean significant compared to the distances traversed? My back-of-the-envelope math suggests it’s less than half a percent for a cable from New York to England. (6 miles down + 6 miles up, divided by rough great circle distance of 2600 nautical miles.) I would think a bigger factor would be that the cables (IIRC) don't go in straight lines (which you did allude to).
Correct. The ocean bottom is relatively flat once away from the continents. Also, the submarine cable actually has a very slight advantage over a surface cable as at several thousand feet below it is following a slightly smaller radius curve. I'm waiting for the HFT firm to bore a literally strait hole between London and New York. Then we know that HFT has gone too far.
I thought quantum entanglement solved the HFT use case
Re: Where's the fastest place to put my server? How much does it matter?
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, it really is mostly about skiing (see above). Amsterdam, Frankfurt and (perhaps surprisingly) Marseilles are the places to go if you want to optimize for routing. Equinix has datacenters, with he.net POP, in all three places. You could do a lot worse than standardizing, globally, on EQX datacenters and he.net connectivity ...
How do you handle IPv6 given the squabble between HE and Cogent? Some internal routing and separate peering arrangements?
I'm not sure how rsync.net handles connectivity, but note that chosing to be at an Equinix location that he.net services doesn't necessarily mean using he.net, exclusively, or otherwise.
I think both Equinix locations and he.net presence are good indicators of lots of connectivity, and so both together indicates you should have access to many choices of transit (and peering). That said, I have no experience with actually obtaining connectivity at such sites; I have dreams, but no actual need ;)
Re: Where's the fastest place to put my server? How much does it matter?
#108>"If you're wondering why small New Jersey towns like Secaucus and Piscataway are so well connected - they have big data centres used by America's financial sector."
PDS: In other words, if you're looking for great connectivity points (in America or abroad) -- look for peering points already in use by the financial industry...
It makes a lot of sense...
Re: Where's the fastest place to put my server? How much does it matter?
#109The fastest place to put your server is in your home. Compared to having things locally everything is slow. If you want a server for other people then it changes.
If that's what you want to optimize for, take this idea and run with it.
I.e. you can build a website that downloads some data into the browser while the visitor is viewing the first page and subsequent pages will be delivered from inside the browser without hitting the network. They may not be too happy about the extra traffic, especially when on mobile.
Re: Where's the fastest place to put my server? How much does it matter?
#110Not Eugene OR. That's where my startup put their servers for a conference/collaboration tool. I remember getting a complaint from a customer in Jordan, trying to conference with a customer in India. They had something like 1sec latency, communicating through Eugene and back. Twice across the planet.
For planet-wide real-time communications (i.e. voice) you really need several server locations or go p2p.
Optimize for MOS ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_opinion_score ) and take into account how latency affects that score.