IIS (
Microsoft Internet Information Services,) is the web server integrated with Windows servers (such as
Windows NT,
Windows 2000, and
Windows Server 2003.) The current (Windows 2000) version is IIS 5.
FTP,
SMTP, and
HTTP servers and packaged in the bundle.
This web server implements the
embrace, extend, extinguish policy by adding proprietary features such as
Active Server Pages,
FrontPage Extensions[?], and
ASP.NET[?]. Strangely, IIS will work with
PHP and probably other user-installed extensions.
HTTPS capability is integrated with
Certificate Services[?].
Internet Information Services was designed to run on a Windows professional or server operating system, but a workaround for Windows XP Home was (accidentally) posted on Microsoft?s Knowledge Base. Management quickly deleted the article.
Microsoft commissioned a firm to evaluate the TCO of Windows 2000 (see the
Windows Server 2003 article.) In the survey of IT professionals,
Linux had a higher uptime percentage than Windows, because (according to the survey,) more Linux servers were deployed than Windows servers. (High licensing costs probably led IT departments to purchase fewer servers, although that problem may be fixed with the release of
Windows Server 2003 Web Edition.)
Naturally, Linux/
Apache would come to mind as competing for web server markets, but for enterprises,
Solaris Operating Environment/
J2EE might be a better match.
Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition is
Sun Microsystems enterprise framework comparable to Microsoft's
.NET. Most Fortune 500 companies use
Java for their enterprise back-end, which also has high licensing costs.
Microsoft Internet Information Services Homepage (
http://www.microsoft.com/iis)