Release delivers a host of evolutionary enhancements throughout the server.

The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), yesterday announced version 2.4 of the Apache HTTP Server.

The organization avers that numerous enhancements make Apache HTTP Server v2.4 ideally suited for cloud environments. They include:

• Improved performance (lower resource utilization and better concurrency)
• Reduced memory usage
• Asyncronous I/O support
• Dynamic reverse proxy configuration
• Performance on par, or better, than pure event-driven web servers
• More granular timeout and rate/resource limiting capability
• More finely-tuned caching support, tailored for high traffic servers and proxies
  

Additional features include easier problem analysis, improved configuration flexibility, more powerful authentication and authorization, and documentation overhaul. The complete feature list can be found at http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/new_features_2_4.html.

It articulates that the Apache Web Server began as a fork (an independent development stream) of the NCSA httpd web server created by Rob McCool at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). After McCool's departure from NCSA in 1994, an online community of individuals called the Apache Group formed to support and enhance its software via email collaboration. The Apache Group's founding members included Brian Behlendorf, Roy Fielding, Rob Hartill, David Robinson, Cliff Skolnick, Randy Terbush, Robert Thau, and Andrew Wilson. Within less than a year of the Apache Group's formation, the Apache server surpassed NCSA httpd as the #1 server on the Internet - and remains so to this day. In March 1999, members of the Apache Group formed The Apache Software Foundation to provide organizational, legal, and financial support for the Apache HTTP Server.

The organization says that the Apache HTTP Server software is released under the Apache License v2.0, and is overseen by a self-selected team of active contributors to the project. A Project Management Committee (PMC) guides the Project's day-to-day operations, including community development and product releases. Apache HTTP Server source code, documentation, mailing lists, and related resources are available at http://httpd.apache.org/.

"It is with great pleasure that we announce the availability of Apache HTTP Server 2.4," said Eric Covener, Vice President of the Apache HTTP Server Project. "This release delivers a host of evolutionary enhancements throughout the server that our users, administrators, and developers will welcome. We've added many new modules in this release, as well as broadened the capability and flexibility of existing features."