Scalable Stories

GetPageSpeed

Welcome to Scalable Stories—the podcast where our hosts explore the nuances of web performance, security, and scalable infrastructures. Learn how to optimize your servers with tools like NGINX modules by GetPageSpeed, Varnish Cache, and leverage platforms like RHEL and Rocky Linux for robust deployments.

Each episode offers insights into enhancing server efficiency, speeding up websites, and fortifying against security threats. Whether you’re a developer, sysadmin, or tech enthusiast, join us to unlock the secrets of scalable and secure web architectures.

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Episodes 44

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September 27 · 8 min
The official Amplify app is now on iPhone
Technical Briefing: GetPageSpeed Amplify iPhone App The Problem F5s hosted NGINX Amplify reached end of life on January 31, 2026. Users of that service needed a continuing path for the familiar agent-based monitoring of NGINX and related services. The Fi
September 26 · 11 min
NGINX Accept-Language Redirects: No Lua Required
Technical Briefing: NGINX Accept-Language Module — Header-Based Language Detection The Problem Stock NGINX cannot parse the Accept-Language header. Language-based redirects therefore typically require a map block full of regexes, an njs script, or a full
September 25 · 10 min
NGINX Variables: Scope, Handlers, and Common Pitfalls
Technical Briefing: NGINX Variables — Semantics, Caching, and Scope The Problem NGINX variables look like scripting variables but do not behave like them. Three rules govern their behavior, and violating any of them produces either a startup failure or a
September 24 · 11 min
Serve WP Rocket Cache Directly from Nginx Without PHP
Technical Briefing: WP Rocket Nginx Plugin — Direct Static Cache Delivery The Problem On a self-managed Nginx server running WP Rocket, a cached request still travels the long way around: Nginx → PHP-FPM → PHP cache loader → cached HTML file. The HTML fi
September 22 · 14 min
NGINX ESI: Replace Varnish for Magento 2
Technical Briefing: NGINX ESI as a Varnish Replacement for Magento 2 The Problem Running Magento 2 behind Varnish means operating a second proxy, a second configuration language (VCL), and a second cache lifecycle in the request path — all sitting betwee
September 21 · 11 min
Encrypted Client Hello in NGINX: Now Shipping in Our RPMs and DEBs
Technical Briefing: Encrypted Client Hello (ECH) in GetPageSpeed NGINX Packages The Problem: The Last Plaintext Leak in TLS 1.3 TLS 1.3 encrypts nearly everything in the handshake except one field: the SNI (Server Name Indication). Even with a fully mode
September 20 · 19 min
NGINX Post-Quantum TLS: X25519MLKEM768 with OpenSSL 3.5
Technical Briefing: NGINX Post-Quantum TLS — X25519MLKEM768 with OpenSSL 3.5 The Problem: Harvest Now, Decrypt Later The threat model is not a quantum computer breaking TLS today — it is an attacker recording encrypted traffic now and decrypting it once
September 19 · 10 min
Parallel ESI for Varnish 6.0 LTS: vmod-pesi Now Packaged
Technical Briefing: Parallel ESI for Varnish 6.0 LTS via vmod-pesi The Problem: Sequential ESI Fragment Assembly Stock open-source Varnish processes ESI includes sequentially. A page containing two uncached fragments that each take 2 seconds to render th
September 18 · 9 min
NGINX QUIC reuseport: HTTP/3 Silently Breaks Without It
Technical Briefing: NGINX HTTP/3 reuseport, quicbpf, and SELinux The Problem: HTTP/3 Silently Fails Without reuseport With workerprocesses greater than 1, a QUIC listener configured without reuseport shares a single UDP socket across all workers. Because
September 15 · 10 min
NGINX Certificate Compression: RFC 8879 for Every Browser
Technical Briefing: RFC 8879 Certificate Compression in NGINX Problem Statement The TLS 1.3 certificate chain dominates the servers first flight and competes with the initial congestion window and QUICs 3x amplification limit. RFC 8879 certificate compre
September 14 · 9 min
Post-Quantum NGINX: OpenSSL 3.5 on Debian and Ubuntu
Technical Briefing: Post-Quantum NGINX with OpenSSL 3.5 on Debian and Ubuntu Problem Statement NGINX packages on Debian and Ubuntu previously linked against each distributions system OpenSSL. On Ubuntu 20.04 (focal), that meant OpenSSL 1.1.1, which reach
September 14 · 9 min
OpenSSL 4.0 for NGINX: Why We Ship 3.5 LTS Instead
Technical Briefing: OpenSSL 3.5 LTS vs. 4.0 for NGINX Packaging Problem Statement The decision between OpenSSL 3.5 and 4.0 for an NGINX fleet is a question of support windows and migration cost, not feature parity. OpenSSL 4.0 shipped in April 2026 but i
September 13 · 15 min
zstd-nginx-module: Maintained, Tested and Packaged
Technical Briefing: Maintained zstd Module for NGINX — Streaming Fixes, Packaging, and Audit Response Problem Statement The original tokers/zstd-nginx-module (by Alex Zhang) has not seen a release since 2023 and carries bugs in its streaming path that si
September 12 · 8 min
NGINX RADIUS Authentication: No More htpasswd Files
Technical Briefing: RADIUS Authentication for NGINX Problem Statement NGINX ships with no built-in RADIUS support. Organizations that centralize credentials in FreeRADIUS, Microsoft NPS, Cisco ISE, or Aruba ClearPass have had no way to make NGINX defer t
September 11 · 10 min
ECH Without Padding Is a Lookup Table
Technical Briefing: Closing the ECH Handshake-Size Side Channel in NGINX Problem Statement Encrypted Client Hello (ECH) encrypts the inner ClientHello—including the real SNI—and pads it. But the servers encrypted handshake flight (EncryptedExtensions, Ce
September 9 · 7 min
NGINX TLS Vulnerability Fixes: BREACH, SWEET32, ROBOT
Here is the technical briefing based on the provided source summary. --- Technical Briefing: Eliminating Legacy TLS Vulnerabilities and Achieving Post-Quantum Readiness in NGINX Problem Statement Four legacy TLS vulnerabilities—BREACH, Lucky13, SWEET32,
September 8 · 7 min
NGINX proxy_pass: URI Rewriting, Variables, and DNS Gotchas
NGINX proxypass: URI Rewriting, Variables, and DNS Gotchas — Technical Briefing Problem Statement The proxypass directive in NGINX has several non-obvious behaviors around URI rewriting, DNS resolution, and configuration placement. Misunderstanding these
September 7 · 7 min
NGINX Directive Execution Order: The 11 Request Phases
NGINX Directive Execution Order: The 11 Request Phases Problem Statement NGINX processes every request through a fixed pipeline of eleven phases. A directive does not run where it is written in the configuration file—it runs when its phase comes up in th
August 23 · 7 min
NGINX Early Hints: HTTP 103 Benchmarked on Enterprise Linux
Technical Briefing: NGINX Early Hints (HTTP 103) on Enterprise Linux Problem Statement HTTP Early Hints (status code 103) allows a server to send preliminary response headers—such as Link headers for render-blocking resources—before the final response, e
August 6 · 4 min
You’re renting your own kernel
Technical Briefing on tenantd Problem Statement CloudLinux offers enhanced tenant isolation features for servers, but it requires a forked kernel and incurs a monthly licensing fee. Users must also rely on CloudLinuxs update schedule for kernel patches a

Showing 21–40 of 44 episodes