Microsoft's IIS may catch Apache in Web server market
 

Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS) continues to narrow the gap with the open-source Apache Web server, with a survey firm suggesting that the longtime second banana could surpass Apache as early as next year. Microsoft, which added 2.6 million Web sites in the last month, grew to 36.2 percent of all active Web sites, according to figures released Monday by U.K.-based research firm, Netcraft. Apache lost nearly a million Web site names, as its share of active Web sites fell to 48.4 percent.

Apache now leads IIS, which is bundled with Windows Server, by 12.2 percent among active Web sites, a list which excludes registered domain names that are not yet in actual usage. "But if Microsoft continues to gain share at its current pace, it could close the gap on Apache sometime in 2008," said the Netcraft posting accompanying the survey results.

That's a major turnaround in two years. Apache has led the Netcraft survey since its inception in 1995. By November 2005 it was running 71 percent of all Web sites. That gave Apache a greater-than 50 percent lead over IIS's 20.2 percent share, and caused commentators such as Oracle executive Larry Ellison to declare that IIS had been "wiped off the face of the earth" by Apache.

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News source: InfoWorld

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