The Apache security HTTP Server is one of the most popular servers worldwide. Apache hosting has a number of advantages, right from its worldwide acceptance, down to presence of a massive developer community to seek assistance.

The security levels involved are always high, and Apache web server boasts of flock of features that aren’t available on all the web servers. Apache supports SSL and TSL, authentication modules, a proxy module, server-side programming language, common languages interfaces, and even rewrite engine.
Apache hosting is extremely popular in case of VPS, since you can view remote logs, and use free scripts effortlessly to generate traffic reports and much more. There are plenty of other benefits associated with Apache hosting, but still its popularity has decreased drastically with emergence of IIS7.

Benefits of IIS7 over Apache

IIS 7 came out with several improvisations over Apache, and plenty of firms considered migration from Apache to IIS, to make use of the new architecture, not to mention the obvious long term cost effectiveness of the Windows Server platform.

However, the functionality of IIS way too different from Apache, and it would take more than a business decision to make a big shift from Apache to IIS, especially for the developers who’re accustomed to working with Apache.
Working With Apache.

As everyone is pretty much aware of the fact that the days of good old static HTML sites are almost gone, and now everyone wants to build highly interactive PHP-MySQL based database driven sites with all possible functionality that provide a wonderful user-experience.

For coders, and those who work with Apache, LAMPP is an extremely popular term, which stands for

• Linux,
• Apache,
• Mysql,
• PHP, and
• Perl.

Basically, the apache web server is the core framework of your website, and Linux OS adds to flexibility and robustness, while saving your licenses cost at the same time. Mysql is one of the best open source databases, and PHP is yet another open source scripting platform that makes creation of dynamic web pages almost a snap.

To work with Apache, you require the aforementioned expertise, but to make use of Apache hosting, you don’t really need to know any technicalities.

Since we’re discussing the use of Apache and Lampp, it is essential to mention that the most popular blogging software, WordPress is almost based on LAMPP i.e. Apache, and Linux/Apache hosting is essential to support hosting of WordPress blogs. Therefore, if you’re planning to run WordPress blogs, IIS hosting isn’t going to help!

Migrating from Apache to IIS

If you need to migrate from Apache to IIS, it may sound like a daunting task at hand. But, there are a handful of resources such as ISAPI_Rewrite module from Helicon that can help you in transferring Apache’s configuration as well as URL rewrite capability onto IIS effortlessly. Similarly, you’ve got the Apache Emulator module that facilitates full scale migration of websites in few simple steps, making the migration from Apache to IIS hell a lot simpler than expected.

But, still there’s whole lot of confusion over the matter, and many companies are hell bent on using Apache, and simply refusing to make a shift onto IIS.

Updates with IIS7 Hosting Plans

The goodness of Helicon’s APE isn’t a secret any more, no wonder majority of the hosting providers are now providing this module as a part of their IIS 7 hosting plans, enticing the administrators, and business owners to make a move from Apache hosting to IIS hosting. This has definitely made the life of managers lot simpler, since the migration process has become easier than ever before. However, from business point of view, IIS7 is still new, and dumping the tested and trusted platform like Apache, and making such a big move is still a very thoughtful issue that must be handled carefully.

Additionally, Apache hosting has been admired in terms of exceptional track record in systems protection, but once again you can’t call any system to be flawless by any means.

Keeping pace with technological developments is extremely necessary, so even if you’re making a move to IIS, you must keep yourself up-to-date with latest developments. Last but definitely not the least, one must also consider the specific requirements and platform into consideration, before planning to migrate from Apache to IIS or deselecting Apache hosting services, since WordPress blogs, many open source shopping scripts, and wide varieties of applications run on Linux/Apache environment, and it would not be possible to sustain them with IIS, despite the fact that IIS7 has got a number of advantages over Apache.