With profound appreciation and gratitude, we announce today that Igor Sysoev โ author of NGINX and coโfounder of NGINX, Inc. โ has chosen to step back from NGINX and F5 to spend more time with his friends and family and pursue personal projects.
Source: Official NGINX Blog
NGINX Inc. was founded in July 2011 by Igor Sysoev and Maxim Konovalov to provide commercial products and support for the software.
NGINX is part of F5 Networks, which F5 did in 2019 to help them evolve from a hardware company to a more services-focused firm.
Today our paths diverge, and Igor goes on a well-deserved rest. Fortunately, his spirit and the culture he created will not go anywhere.
Rob Whiteley, manager of F5
In 2021, NGINX took over Apache as the #1 web server on the Internet that users can install. According to W3Techs, NGINX currently holds 33% of the global web server market! Apache occupies second place with 31%.
A Brief History of NGINX
Initially developed in Russia, the original motivation for creating NGINX wasnโt nearly so grand. In 2001, NGINXโs original creator Igor Sysoev was trying to solve a problem at work.
His web servers were having trouble keeping up with everโincreasing numbers of requests. The challenge was referred to at the time as the C10K problem โ handling 10,000 simultaneous client connections to clients.
A side note is that Igor first developed two third-party modules for Apache, mod_deflate, and mod_accel. Especially the latter was a big step towards NGINX already. It was a much more capable replacement for the mod_proxy module that was bundled with Apache.
Related: Apache vs Nginx: Which Web Server You Should Choose
Inspired by the design of Unix and other classic distributed systems, Igor developed an eventโdriven architecture that is so lightweight, scalable, and powerful that itโs still at the heart of NGINX today.
After several companies in Russia and abroad began using NGINX, Igor open-sourced the project with a permissive license on October 4, 2004.
Today NGINX powers hundreds of millions of websites. The website youโre reading right now also heavily relies on NGINX.
Bottom Line
Some time ago, I watched a video from a conference where Igor participated. As soon as he says, “Hello, I’m Igor Sysoev, creator of NGINX,” the audience bursts with extra-long applause. He even had to tell them, “Come on guys, you havenโt heard my presentation yet.”
So, Igor didnโt need praise or promotion. Instead, he created something essential for the Internet today. His code spoke for itself.
Thank you, Igor, for making a difference! Good luck with everything that comes next for you!
