Iis News & Articles

The web server market has been stable for ages. Year after year, open source darling Apache HTTP server takes first place by an impressive margin and Microsoft’s Internet Information Server (IIS) takes the silver. Well, it looks like things are changing.

Even with Thanksgiving, there are still some interesting developments in document management. IDC is predicting a massive growth in sophisticated peripherals, iOS 5 has new, added document syncing, Perceptive releases ModusOne, DataMotion’s SecureMail technology goes mobile and IIS partners with OPEX.

For someone who's spent most of her career writing about Linux and open source, it was a little brain-bending to see a Microsoft (news, site) booth at DrupalCon 2011. I managed to drag Mark Brown, senior product manager for the Microsoft Web Platform Team, away from the booth for a bit of a chat.

Adobe wasn't the only one making news at the IBC Conference in Amsterdam last week. Microsoft also had a few good news items to share, including the upcoming IIS Media Services 4.

The tools for Microsoft web developers are getting better and better these days, we've seen that with the SharePoint 2010 tools for Visual Studio 2010. But Microsoft is now also coming out with a new web server to support all ASP.NET developers: IIS Express.

Everyone understands the value of a readable URL. But many web applications and websites still output complex ones that no one, even a search engine can understand. Microsoft now makes it easier to map those complex URLs to simpler ones.

For those of you who run a Microsoft web environment built on IIS (Internet Information Server), but still would like to run some open source applications and/or websites, there's good news for you.

Helicon Tech, a provider of web server enhancement tools, has released an Apache emulator for IIS 7. Called Helicon APE, it implements .htaccess configurations within the IIS web server. This includes almost all of the major Apache modules (35+ to be exact).

The Helicon APE offers modification-free transition of Apache websites to IIS, simple configuration of PHP and Apache compatible URL rewriting syntax.

Helicon APE
 

The Helicon APE is installed on IIS 7 as a managed module, but can also work for other versions of IIS that support ASP.NET when installed as an ASP.NET module.

APE costs start at US$ 25 for a website and US$ 95 for a server license. There's also a free version for up to 3 websites on a single server.

Now this one isn't from Microsoft, but is another step towards interoperability between Microsoft and open source. There are likely many who would love to have this product.

Search Engine Optimization is a key element of any website design these days. Now you can hire an agency to help you improve your website's SEO or, you can do it yourself with a new toolkit for IIS: The IIS SEO Toolkit.

.NET developer Kentico has announced details of the new version of it’s Web CMS product which hits the shelves in mid-March. Dedicated as ever to the Microsoft stack, the Czech company’s new offering assures support for Windows Server 2008 and the soon to be released SQL Server 2008.

In addition, Kentico 3.1 will also support Visual Studio 2008 and IIS 7.0. Compatibility with Server 2000/2003 and SQL Server 2000/2005 is preserved in the new release.

Continuing a trend that began with Office 2007 and was followed by Windows Vista, Microsoft announces that the Beta 3 version of its next generation server operating system is available for download and will go into manufacturing before the end of the year.

All the twists, turns and tips you need for staying up-to-date by the water cooler.

This week’s highlights include:

• MS Builds Media Management Offering on SharePoint. Microsoft automates the (human) interactive media manager. Any surprise?
• Xerox Proves It’s More than Just Hardware. The copy guys go down ECM Lane. Can they handle it?
• Zenoss Shows Fangs with Sharp Use of Open Source. Apparently there is such a thing as a business that can thrive on a 100 percent open source diet.
• Movable Type Gets Security Update, Easier Downloads. Exactly what it sounds like.
• CMS Watch Releases ECM Suites Report. Before commiting to an enterprise CMS, find out what kind of options are out there and which services best suit you.

And these are the articles you couldn’t get enough of (if unique visits are anything to go by, anyway). These days everybody’s an OSS-head…

• What is Web 2.0 Content Management? (Part 1)
• Alfresco: One of Ten Enterprise Software Companies to Watch
• Bye Microsoft CMS, Hello MOSS WCM
• Open Source: Joomla CMS Dances Off the Mambo Floor
• Why Simplicity is Essential to Web Design

Kentico Software, a Czech Web Content Management (Web CMS) software vendor, has updated their Kentico ASP.NET CMS product to v1.7, adding Web Forms and Staging capabilities. The new version allows business users to create, publish, and generate reports from on-line forms without any programming.

Czech Replublic based CMS vendor, Kentico, has released version 1.0 of their Web CMS product.

Kentico CMS for ASP.NET was designed for Web developers. Kentico was conceived as a tool for technical integrators who wish to rapidly deploy custom solutions with sophisticated CMS functionality. Affordable and accessible, licenses start at USD 499.

The landscape of inexpensive .NET Web CMS products is warming up. Kentico have recently announced the availability of their v1.0 beta.

Kentico is a native .NET CMS that is geared towards the technically minded and designed with the assumption that an integrator will be implementing the final solution.

If you are one of those who tinkers, head on over to www.kentico.com, pop the hood, and earn yourself a 30% discount via the provision of insightful feedback.