Design Tip: Don’t Be 5,000 Miles From Your Server
Print Article
Design Tip: Don’t Be 5,000 Miles From Your Server
Give Your Data a Shortcut
Do you know what happens after you hit the “Send” button in your email program or when you hit the “Upload” button on your FTP program? Most people take for granted what happens next and how the data gets to where it’s going. Much like cars traveling on a highway, the data has to enter and exit a complicated and long system of networks. Logically, the shorter the distance the data has to travel, the faster the data gets to where its going and the less time you spend waiting.
One quick way to test potential speed and time saved is by using a ping test, the Internet’s version of Sonar. A ping test simply sends and receives data packets from one location to another across a network. It then reports how long that round trip took.
Tests & Results
Several scenarios were tested to help show how dramatic the difference is when your web server is close to you. All of these simulations were run from an un-metered test location in Newark, DE to data centers in both Los Angeles, CA and Washington, D.C. As you can see from the charts below, the scenarios run through the nearer data center were considerably faster.
1) Website Comp Uploads:
This scenario simulates uploading several design comps for your clients and involved uploading (10) 5MB “Comp” files.
• Avg Time to DC: 4.73 Secs
• Avg Time to LA: 52.58 Secs
• Improvement: Approximately 11x Faster
2) Website Updates:
Updating client websites with new images, design elements, text and other content is a frequent part of the daily grind. This is simulated by uploading a variety of test files. These include (20) 10KB “Web Page” files, (20) 300KB “Logo/Image” files and (5) 1MB “PDF/Large Image” files.
• Avg Time to DC: 1.87 Secs
• Avg Time to LA: 21.13 Secs
• Improvement: Approximately 11x Faster
3) Email:
Whether you love or hate the amount of email you send and receive daily, using email to communicate with your colleagues and clients is a necessity. It also involves receiving content from your clients which includes videos, images, flash files, logos and more. These files can be very large and can take quite a long time to download. Three simulations were set-up to measure the improvement when sending/receiving through a server close to you.
Email Simulation 1:
The first simulates downloading your email in the morning. This involved downloading (300) 30KB “Email” files representing simple text emails with no attachments.
• Avg Time to DC: 5 Secs
• Avg Time to LA: 70 Secs
• Improvement: Approximately 14x Faster
Email Simulation 2:
The next simulation involves what it would be like to respond to that same volume of emails, by sending (300) 30KB “Email” files.
• Avg Time to DC: 6.94 Secs
• Avg Time to LA: 79 Secs
• Improvement: Approximately 11x Faster
Email Simulation 3:
The last simulation takes into account having clients sending email with collateral (such as logos, pdfs, images, etc.) attached that they want included on their website. It involves downloading a series of (30) 30KB “Email” files and (5) 1MB “Collateral” files.
• Avg Time to DC: 1.03 Secs
• Avg Time to LA: 23.5 Secs
• Improvement: Approximately 23x Faster
The Easy Solution
Choose a web host with a data center located as close as possible to your location. By doing so, you can cut down on time spent waiting for data transfers by as much as 23x, simply by giving your data a shortcut. This will leave you with considerably more time for important tasks like conceptualization and design, meeting with clients and business development.