Advantages Of IIS Web Server Hosting
IIS(Internet Information Service) is one of the leading web server solutions. From the earliest version 1.0 to the current 7.5, the MS team always brings us big surprise with up to date technical supports. Recently, I upgraded my server to windows server 2008 R2 and configured the IIS with all available add-on products. I have to say, it's by far the most powerful system in my web experience. I would be more than happy to share my experience with this product.
What's new in IIS 7.5?
- Built-in, brand new FTP server and WebDav support
- Rich IIS configuration editor and scripts for automated configuration management
- Windows PowerShell snap-in for IIS
- Quality enhancements with lots of bug fixes
- Config tracing so you can audit changes to the IIS configuration system
- Application Warm-Up tech for best web performance
For the full list of IIS new features in 7.5, you can check out this Mai-lan's blog post: http://blogs.iis.net/mailant/archive/2009/10/22/general-availability-of-windows-7-amp-windows-server-2008-r2-with-iis-7-5.aspx
Popular add-on products for IIS
IIS is great because the rich of great add-on products to meet your different web requirements. The add-on products are categorized by production and development sections. You can try out the most recent tech from development release and apply the most stable service on your live site from production category. Although the windows server is costly, all these add-on products are free to download on IIS official site! Here're few of the great products I have tried out.
- Search Engine Optimization Toolkit -It helps us how to optimize our web site contents and structures for search engine friendly. Robots and sitemaps are supported.
- Database Manager -If you think you have to install thrid party tools in order to manage a database well, you're out! IIS Database Manager provides the ability to connect to any database on the network. Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL are fully compatible! You can query and view database diagrams in IIS UI conveniently.
- Web Deploy -A tool to simplify the web server migration/deployment. No matter if we want to synchronize a webserver or migrate from older IIS websites to new one, Web deploy is working like a charm! It works with single website migration as well as entire server migration.
- Web Platform Installer -The best one for end website users. The web platform installer is a gallery of the popular softwares installation. The IIS Web Platform Installer makes the process of software installation easy! just click search the wished name then click "Add" button and it will configure the software smartly on your iis server! It works for website software such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal etc. It also works for server end software installation such as PHP, SQL Server and every products available as free.
There're many fantastic add-ons which is available at http://www.iis.net/download/ for free download. Just try and find out more surprise.
Actually, the biggest surprise in my experience is the increase of website performance. Unlike the old version server where I have to configure services very carefully and test out before applying to production server, The IIS 7.5 on server 2008 can be auto configured via the official team experience. The configuration is available from the web platform installer pack.
Best IIS Web Hosting Provider
IIS is the earliest web server and shares about half market on the planet. However, not too many hosting providers be able to offer reliable iis web hosting plans. A good iis hosting service must be affordable and reliable with easy management. Since 2006, arvixe has been our top recommendation for feature rich and affordable iis hosting plans. Starts from $5/mo, you can take advantages of unlimited storage and monthly data transfer as well as free domain name to put up website in quick time!
Visit arvixe for iis web hosting plans http://www.Arvixe.com
Since from the first release of iis, it has brought us positive surprise for each upgrade. It's hard to say what kind of new surprise their team will bring us. However, since the industry is hot for cloud computing and server virtulization, the iis team will probably give more support in this business. Let's just wait for the coming news.
