IIS7: the latest and greatest from Microsoft.

IIS7 is the latest iteration of Microsoft’s web server. Formerly known as Internet Information Server, IIS has come to dominate most servers owned by Fortune 100 companies, although Apache remains the overall market leader. According to the latest statistics, more than a third of all sites are backed by IIS.

Benefits of IIS7 over IIS6

IIS7 is one of the major updates to the IIS platform. The biggest change is the modular nature of the engine. This means that one can configure IIS7 to support only the features that are needed, adding more when necessary. In addition to improving its flexibility, this leads to a significant leap in security. For example, you can add scripting modules and even backwards compatibility.

Another significant improvement is the use of an XML-based web.config file (just like in .NET applications) to handle the configuration of all server configuration. This leads to improvements in portability, fine tuning, and ease of access compared to previous hierarchical metabase storage up to IIS6.

There is also good news for vpn users. IIS7 has improved its remote administration capability by providing secure HTTP connections, although you must manually enable remote administration. But that may be a good thing as some saw the old setup as more vulnerable.

While there are many more improvements, let’s look at some reasons why you should use an IIS7 engine instead of a more traditional server like Apache.

Benefits of IIS7 over Apache

For most people, the ability to use PHP scripts in IIS is used to determine whether they are running a Windows platform. Even a hosting provider like Godaddy does not allow the use of a PHP based application like WordPress on a Windows server. However, the latest versions of IIS and especially IIS 7 bring massive performance improvements when running PHP scripts to the point that PHP is no longer the only reason not to choose IIS.

Today, more and more site owners are turning to Windows to host their PHP-based applications, and WordPress on Windows is gaining a huge following. Thanks to improvements in PHP and IIS through the cooperative efforts of Zend and Microsoft, PHP’s performance is much more stable, reliable, and faster than in previous versions.

Of course, if you plan to use the awesome .NET platform, then IIS 7 is your only option. With the latest version of ASP.NET 3.5 and full support for the MVC framework, there has never been a more exciting time to develop applications in .NET. In addition, Microsoft Web PI has made it easier than ever to install all .NET-related components. IIS 7 has also significantly improved its usability interface by avoiding the full MMC framework it had before.

IIS7 also features enhanced diagnostics with advanced error tracking that allows you to trace errors based on conditions that you want IIS to look for. This could be tracking dead pages or other errors through its “failed request tracking” capability.

Summary

All in all, now is the time to switch to a Windows platform if you’ve been sitting on the fence until now. New security features, along with flexibility, ease of use, and diagnostics, have made IIS 7 an irresistible choice for those looking to host their web applications.