Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Huge Traffic On Wikipedia's Non-Profit Budget

Posted by timothy on from the optimizing-smartitude dept.

miller60 writes "'As a non-profit running one of the world's busiest web destinations, Wikipedia provides an unusual case study of a high-performance site. In an era when Google and Microsoft can spend $500 million on one of their global data center projects, Wikipedia's infrastructure runs on fewer than 300 servers housed in a single data center in Tampa, Fla.' Domas Mituzas of MySQL/Sun gave a presentation Monday at the Velocity conference that provided an inside look at the technology behind Wikipedia, which he calls an 'operations underdog.'"

24 of 240 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Impressive by VeNoM0619 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yes, and seeing how slashdot decided to try and slashdot them also helps...

    --
    Disclaimer: I am not god.
    We may not be created equal
    But we can be treated equal.
  2. I was just thinking that by imstanny · · Score: 2, Funny

    Every time I Google something, Wikipedia comes near the top most of the time. Maybe that's why Google doesn't want to disclose its processing power, it may very will be a lot smaller than people assume.

  3. Easy to Increase the budget or add servers by Subm · · Score: 5, Funny

    How hard can it be to increase the budget or add more servers?

    Just go to the Wikipedia page with those numbers and change them. You don't even need to have an account.

    1. Re:Easy to Increase the budget or add servers by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Funny

      In their defense, if you're going to run your entire site off a single server farm,a coastal city in Florida is the logical place to put it.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  4. Maybe... by nakajoe · · Score: 3, Funny

    Datacenterknowledge.com might want to take lessons from Wikipedia as well. Slashdotted...

  5. Note to self by Anita+Coney · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you ever find yourself in a flamewar on Wikipedia you cannot win, bomb Tampa, Florida out of existence.

    --
    If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
    1. Re:Note to self by canajin56 · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's your solution to everything.

      --
      ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
    2. Re:Note to self by TubeSteak · · Score: 2, Funny

      That's your solution to everything. I did ask if you wouldn't prefer a nice game of Chess.
      -WOPR
      --
      [Fuck Beta]
      o0t!
    3. Re:Note to self by Rick+Genter · · Score: 2, Funny

      an invading country which the one superpower of the world already hates?

      China hates North Korea?

      --
      Don't underestimate the power of The Source
  6. Re:Some thoughts by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Funny

    Do you want to pay for software, or do you want to pay for people?

    Only one can create the other.

    Oh, gods, let's hope so!
    --
    My blog
  7. Re:Tampa? by nickull · · Score: 2, Funny

    Not to mention hurricanes and faulty electronic voting machines.... ;-)

    --
    "Question everything, including this!" - http://technoracle.blogspot.com/
  8. Link to wikipedia? by Luyseyal · · Score: 4, Funny

    The summary was wrong to include a link to the Wikipedia homepage without a Wikipedia link about Wikipedia in case you don't know what Wikipedia is. I myself had to Google Wikipedia to find out what Wikipedia was so I am providing the Wikipedia link about Wikipedia in case others were likewise in the dark regarding Wikipedia.

    -l

    P.s., Wikipedia.

    --
    Help cure AIDS, cancer, and more. Donate your unused computer time to worldcommunitygrid.org. Join Team Slashdot!
    1. Re:Link to wikipedia? by hansamurai · · Score: 4, Funny

      Wait, what's this Google thing you're talking about?

      --
      Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
    2. Re:Link to wikipedia? by hansamurai · · Score: 5, Funny

      Nevermind, found it:

      http://www.google.com/search?q=google

      --
      Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
    3. Re:Link to wikipedia? by felipekk · · Score: 2, Funny

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google

    4. Re:Link to wikipedia? by srollyson · · Score: 2, Funny

      [citation needed]

  9. Re:I've always wondered... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "It would be neat to have a deeper look at their budget to see how I can save money and boost performance at work."

    Since they are using LAMP, obviously they could save money by following Microsoft's "Get The Facts" advice!

  10. Re:Wikipedia = much more traffic than slashdot by hostyle · · Score: 5, Funny

    OTOH, if Wikipedia linked slashdot on every page slashdot would go down, if do to nothing else but bandwidth exhaustion.

    Sounds like a dare to me. Gentlemen, start your packets!
    --
    Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
  11. Re:The power of low standards by AK+Marc · · Score: 5, Funny

    Screw that, I want a bank with six twos of performance. 22.2222%. Of course, any number of nines is easy to achieve. Want six nines? 9.99999% is easy.

    --
    Learn to love Alaska
  12. That's easier than it sounds by Cajun+Hell · · Score: 2, Funny

    I don't care how few servers they have, whats more interesting to me is that they run an ultra-high traffic site, which they aren't having trouble paying for, and do it without adds.
    I can do that too; I just emulate the adds. x+y is the same as x-(0-y). You have to be careful to use signed numbers for everything (or else have a lot of casting), but that's not really all that hard.
    --
    "Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
  13. Re:The power of low standards by Kingrames · · Score: 2, Funny

    Screw that, it needs to be a prime number.
    or at least irrational.

    --
    If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
  14. Re:The power of low standards by mpeskett · · Score: 2, Funny

    I can promise you 6 i's of uptime.

    But i^6 being -1, that's not a lot of uptime... if I ever provided you with anything it would be in excess of what I promised.

  15. Re:Wikipedia = much more traffic than slashdot by beav007 · · Score: 3, Funny

    bandwidth exhaustion
    Welcome to ************ broadband tech support. How can I help?

    "My internet is running very slowly tonight. Why is that?"

    Well sir, it looks like you've been downloading from the other side of the continent. I'd say that your packets are just very tired by the time they reach you...
  16. Re:Wikipedia = much more traffic than slashdot by BooRolla · · Score: 5, Funny

    If only there were some way to put links on to Wikipedia!