What Effect Will Windows Server 2003 Have On The Web
Hosting Industry?
As announced by Microsoft
on April 24, 2003, Windows
2003 Server is now generally available. This means
web hosting companies will be starting to offer the
Windows 2003 operating system as an option to their
hosting clients.
Digex said, in a press release on April 24, 2003, that
they would have “immediate availability of Microsoft
Windows Server 2003 within the Digex Managed Platforms
service line.” Other hosting companies that were contacted
have not been so quick to give a time when they would
have a Windows 2003 package available.
It is yet to be determined if security concerns over
the operating system are the reasons behind no official
release date being given for new servers using the new
operating system or not. There is no doubt that everyone
has questions about the security of the new software
release.
Last year alone, there were many different viruses and
worms that propagated though Microsoft’s operating system,
causing millions of dollars worth of damage, including
Nimda and Code Red. Everyone in the computer industry
is now wondering if Microsoft has gotten the security
right.
Microsoft has said that Windows 2003 Server is shipped
secure. The reason the product is said to be secure
by Microsoft officials is because in default configuration
IIS (Internet Information Server) is disabled. Web hosting
companies will have to turn on the web server to serve
web pages for their clients. The big question is if
the software will still be secure once the web server
is turned on.
Security might be on every ones mind but hosting companies
are also looking for the cost savings promised by Microsoft.
Microsoft has announced a new Web Edition with the release
of the Windows 2003 Server. There are no Client Access
Licenses (CALs) and the cost is significantly less at
a price of $399. The price tag for the Standard Edition
is $999, which is the same as it is for Windows 2000,
says Microsoft’s Windows 2000 site. With a $600 dollar
per server savings, the hosting industry will start
seeing more competitors in the budget-hosting segment
with servers running on Windows 2003 Server; a segment
now only containing a handful of Windows hosts.
Servers running open source operating systems like FreeBSD
and Linux currently fill the budget hosts segment of
the market. Microsoft has seen this as an issue for
a while now and is expecting the addition of the Web
Edition to allow more budget hosting packages on the
Microsoft operating system.
The trend for non-Windows based hosting companies to
start deploying services based on the Web Edition of
the Windows 2003 Server has already started thanks to
Microsoft’s new licensing and pricing structure. One
such company to announce plans to start selling servers
with Windows Web Edition is RackShack.net.
RackShack.net
has been a RedHat Linux and Cobalt Raq shop since they
were started but they have posted on their site that
they would be releasing, on May 1, 2003, prices for
systems with “Windows Web Edition powered by Ensim.”
While requests for comments sent to RackShack.net were
unanswered in time for publication, posts on their users
forum have said the cost of the Windows operating system
was the reason behind them not having Windows dedicated
servers in the past.
The real test for Windows 2003 Server will be if developers
will want to rush to it or not. Microsoft said they
have made some major stability changes to IIS 6.0, which
ships with Windows 2003 Server.
The developers that were contacted to see if they were
rushing to get their hands on Windows 2003 Server did
not have definitive answers. One developer said “I have
not had much time to even look at the differences so
I cannot give an answer to that question.”
One thing is for sure; Microsoft has released its Web
Edition of the server to compete against the open source
alternatives. Now Microsoft just has to hope developers
will bite at the chance to get web hosting for about
the same cost as the open source alternatives.
Copyright 2003 Matthew Drouin - More articles can be
found at OpenSourceTutorials
Windows 2003 Web Hosting Providers
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