What Is The Full Form Of IIS?

The full form of IIS is Internet Information Services.

Internet Information Services is an extensible web server software for the Windows server, created by Microsoft to be used with the Windows NT family. It supports HTTPS, HTTP, HTTP/2, FTPS, FTP, NNTP, and SMTP. IIS has stayed as a part of Windows since Windows NT 4.0, but it may be absent from a few editions (for example, Windows XP Home), and it doesn’t stay active by default.

The Manager console of IIS 8.5 was initially released on May 30 1995. The function of the Internet Information Server is to provide a redesigned WWW architecture to help users achieve better performance, reliability, scalability, and security toward our websites. One can use IIS for hosting an application over the Web Server. One can access it from the client systems through a web browser.

Usage and History of IIS

• In February 2014, according to Netcraft, the IIS had about 32.80% of the market share of all sites. It made IIS the second most widespread web server in the world. The first one was at 38.22% – the Apache HTTP Server.
• Since 2012, Netcraft has shown a growing trend for IIS in market share.
• However, on 14 February 2014, the W3Techs showed a different result.
• IIS became the third most utilized web server, according to the W3Techs (behind Nginx at the second place and Apache HTTP Server at first).
• It also shows a consistently decreasing use of IIS since February 2013.
• In February 2017, Netcraft data indicated the market share of IIS to be 10.19% – one of the top million busiest sites. It made IIS the third most popular web server in the world (behind Apache Nginx at 28.34% and at 41.41%).

Characteristics of IIS

• Extensibility – Extending the IIS enables the Web applications to benefit from the functionality. It is something that isn’t easy to provide at the application layer.
• Database Manager – The Database Manager in IIS provides its users with the ability to connect to any database available on the network.
• Build Custom – A user can easily add custom features for extending or replacing any of the existing functionalities. They can make use of their third-party server components developed on the new extensibility APIs.
• Componentization – One of the best and most powerful ways of securing a server system is by having a reduced surface area.
• Web Platform Installer – It consists of a gallery of the most popular software installations, and it is the best for the end website users.

Advantages of IIS

• IIS reduces the attack surface area- thereby increasing the security of the server.
• It reduces memory footprint and improves overall performance.
• It empowers web applications.
• IIS has a lot of bug fixes and quality enhancement.
• It ensures the best web performance with its warm-up tech for applications.

Disadvantages of IIS

• The management of multiple servers or large IIS server configurations can be a very cumbersome and slow process.
• One cannot access all the configuration properties of IIS in the user interface.

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