IIS Reviews

The primary use case is mainly using the IIS service to host web applications so that these applications can be accessed from outside through a web server. 

I think that the IIS includes most features that are required by web applications so that they can run smoothly on Windows operating system. And since it is a native service from Microsoft that is part of the Windows Server ecosystem, so performance is good, and compatibility with the operating system also is excellent. The integration also is great with the operating system, and the integration with other Windows Server roles and applications.

When you are working with Microsoft solutions, you will see that the integration with the operating system, and implementing some security features, are easier in IIS than when using another solution. For example, if you want to use single authentication, SSO, or single sign-on, by authenticating yourself with your Windows username and password, when you are logging in to your computer, the IIS can use these credentials to automatically authenticate you in the application without the need to write or to type again your username or password. This is the SSO, the single sign-on, you can implement it quickly and easily in IIS since it is natively developed to work with Windows operating system. You only need to implement the SSO in your application. And once you develop this module and integrate it into your application, you can easily use it with the IIS within Windows.

Sometimes if you are using IIS in large-scale scenarios, meaning that if you are deploying an application within IIS service and you are expecting a large number of users to use this application, you can sometimes find some problems, meaning that the service can shut down by itself unexpectedly if you don't configure your IIS with the correct configuration that can handle this number of users.

Some configurations are not that easy to configure, there are a lot of details that you need to specify to tweak your applications. Sometimes, you can find problems, especially with applications that are not developed with .NET languages. If you want your application to perform well and can handle a large number of users, you need to use .NET languages like ASP.NET or other .NET technology. But if you are using for example PHP application, sometimes you can find some performance issues.

I encountered that type of problem, especially when you are using, for example, applications that are not developed in the Windows environment and you want to deploy this application with the IIS, sometimes you will find problems, especially performance-related problems.

Frankly, I have been using the solution since 2010. And am still using it when we want to deploy web applications and you want to use a web server. So the IIS is a role within the Windows Server operating system that you can activate to use the web service in the operating system.

It's not about stability, but it's more about compatibility. Meaning that, if you are using Microsoft technology, you won't find better than IIS. But if you are using other programming language technologies that aren't Microsoft technologies, you can find yourself facing these kinds of issues. Especially if your application wasn't developed to fully work with IIS. So sometimes you can find this problem, this problem can be caused by the development process of this application. But sometimes even though you will take into consideration the compatibility problem, the IIS won't perform well with other technologies that are not Microsoft.

The solution is scalable. You can have as many servers that host IIS so that they can handle the connections from users. And this is where the Failover Cluster service is used, it is used to create a cluster of services so that you can make your service scalable and available.

For Microsoft, if you subscribe for example, to the premium subscription plan, and it depends on the level or the urgency of the ticket or the incident, they will contact you sometimes within the hour if it's a critical problem. But if it's just a simple support ticket, sometimes within 24. It's less than 48 hours before they will call you. It depends on if you want them to assist you by phone or by email. And their support is really great, sometimes they can find the problem within minutes. Yeah, I think it's great.

Frankly, we are using other web server applications like the Apache web server. It depends on the application, and how or what web service application it was developed. If it was developed to be used with the IIS, then we use IIS for that application. If this application was developed for Apache or another web service, then we will install this webserver to run the application. Most of the time when it is a PHP web application, then we will use the Apache web server rather than the IIS. But if it's ASP.NET or another .NET technology, then we will use IIS. Or if we are using, for example, another solution from Microsoft, such as SharePoint or Microsoft Exchange mail servers, et cetera, then we will be forced to use the IIS service. Sometimes, you don't have a choice to choose. If it's a Microsoft solution you want to deploy, you will be forced to use IIS. If it's in-house developed application or you buy a product that needs a web server, then you can choose, but it depends also on the compatibility list of the application.

The initial setup is straightforward. It doesn't take much time. It's Windows, it's Microsoft stuff, and with Microsoft, it's about making the installation process easier, you cannot find an easier installation than Microsoft products. It's a role within the Windows Server, so with a number of clicks, you will find yourself ready to use the IIS service.

The implementation was completed in-house. 

Sometimes, I deploy it by myself, and sometimes when another department needs visual machines with Windows Server and the IIS service, I can either install everything by myself or provide them with the virtual machines and the access information credential, et cetera. And the company that will deploy the application for them, it'll be the one that will install the role and configure it.

I think it's part of the Windows Server, so you won't have any other costs to add in order to use the IIS service. Meaning that, if you have a license for Windows Server, then automatically you will have also the IIS service available.

I give the solution eight out of ten.

The IIS service version also depends on the version of the Windows Server. So for example, if you are using the Windows Server 2012, it may have an old version compared to the 2022 Windows Server version. It is the last one since we are also using the 2022 Windows Server operating system, so we are using the latest version 6.0.

Most of the time, if it's me who deployed or installed IIS in the first place, I am the one who will maintain it. But if it's another person or another company or its part of the maintenance program, then we will call the other company to do their maintenance tasks.

In my experience, I think that if you want to use IIS, you need to develop your application to be fully compatible with IIS. Meaning that, you need to use Microsoft technologies rather than other languages, for example, Java or PHP or other, Python or anything else. Rather than that them, you need to choose .NET technologies so that you will take advantage of the performance and compatibility of the system with your application. This is what I can recommend people to do in order to use IIS. Because when for example, you acquire an application or a solution that wasn't developed initially for IIS, you need to do many tweaks in the applications and the IIS in order to make it run. And sometimes these types of tweaks can cause you problems in the production environment.

I am working as a Software Project Manager for a software company in their Pharma Services Division and using IIS on Microsoft Windows Server for local deployment of our pharma related .NET application. It is built in C# and used for uploading and validation of pharma-related information in a locally deployed application by a team of data associates and data analysts.

The information is then transported after validation to the web database on Azure from the local database using an internally-developed desktop application.

IIS is the best option on Microsoft Windows Server for hosting and deployment of .NET applications, either in a local environment or on the web.

The graphical user-interface of IIS is very easy to use and helpful in the effective management of applications.

It comes with Microsoft Windows Server by default, which makes it easier to get started for hosting .NET applications immediately, with no hassles of installation and setup of any other web server.

The integration is the best, being a Microsoft .NET application hosted on Microsoft IIS running on Microsoft Windows Server with Microsoft Database Connectors and Drivers.

IIS has a very simple and user-friendly interface, which helps a lot in effective and efficient management. The simplicity of the interface helps the newbies to learn to manage it fast.

IIS needs immediate improvements, especially in the area of security management.

Having no support for other than a Microsoft environment and programming languages limits the usage of IIS in many cases.

The capability to host and deploy open-source applications would definitely add more value to it. There should be plugins to enable it to support open-source programming languages.

It also limits us in the choice of operating systems.

IIS should be enhanced in terms of its capabilities for monitoring and debugging.

I have been using IIS on Microsoft Windows Server for more than five years.

It is very stable in its operations, hence requires minimum efforts in performance management. It is easy to keep it alive and maintain server uptime.

We have found that customer support has always been good for cases that we have raised. It has a huge user community.

I have experience with Apache Web Server, WAMP, and XAMPP.

Being a part of Microsoft Windows Server, it is very easy to set up and manage IIS.

I tried Apache Web Server before implementing IIS.

Our primary use case for the solution is serving as a port for publishing URLs, especially for our share point team. Additionally, it helps scan and mitigates our vulnerabilities using the best protocols to secure our environment. In the world of cybersecurity, there are significant threats in the IT environment, so we have to mitigate all the HTTP URLs that you have in the environment HTTPS and to do so to secure these tunnels and to provide them with the certificate that you want. IIS also provides the option to secure or mitigate the vulnerabilities in your environment by using the safest protocol to avoid any vulnerabilities or scenarios. We deploy the solution on the premises.

The most valuable feature is controlling the ports you can use and denying the port you won't use in case anything goes wrong. This is one of the most outstanding features, especially for security.

The customer service and support team can be improved.

We have been using the solution for almost 40 years and currently have the latest version implemented.

The solution is very stable.

The solution is scalable and not exclusive to the system administrator. Some teams, such as the network, SharePoint, and dev ops teams, interfere with this solution. However, it is one of the major features of the IIS.

There is a lack of support from the customer service and support team, and they are very slow. I rate them a five out of ten.

Neutral

From my experience, I rate the initial setup a seven out of ten, and the setup took approximately an hour.

We implemented the solution in-house, and one person was required for deployment.

We have seen a return on investment, for all the teams, especially for the security and SharePoint team. Most of the work's done through the server, especially the SharePoint team, and they publish all the websites they are using internally for the company. It's related to the employee and released to the business as a newsletter for the company. So, it's very helpful.

I rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

I use Windows Server IIS to publish our site for my Citrix applications.

I am using an older version of Windows Server IIS and the general management and navigation to get something done is not as straightforward as I hope it to be. The interface could be improved.

I have used Windows Server IIS for approximately three years.

Windows Server IIS is stable.

We have over 100 people using this solution in my organization.

I have contacted the support from Microsoft a few times. Depending on the issue we are having, the support in some cases takes a bit longer to get our point across for them to understand and then to receive a resolution that day.

I rate the support from Microsoft a four out of five.

I have not used another solution previously.

The initial setup of Windows Server IIS is complex. If you already have some experience it can be simple.

We have an external service provider that helps with the maintenance and monitoring of Windows Server IIS. We have internal personnel, but for anything that we can't figure out by ourselves, then we contact the service provider and external help desk.

The price of Windows Server IIS is expensive. They have a large user base, and they charge a little bit too much.

I rate Windows Server IIS an eight out of ten.

If I was using the newer version of Windows Server IIS I would rate it higher.

We are using IIS for many purposes, such as creating the application pools, and websites, and defining the HTTP rules.

IIS could improve the error logging. There are times we are not able to see the errors. More details would be helpful. Additionally, the configuring of the IIS should be allowed through coding instead of the classic view.

I have been using IIS for approximately eight years.

IIS is a stable solution for .NET applications.

The scalability of IIS is good. We can expand the solution if we choose.

We have approximately 30 to 40 people using the solution in my organization.

I was required to use the support from IIS a while ago when we were migrating from IIS 6.0 to IIS 7.0.

I rate the support from IIS a five out of five.

Positive

The initial setup of IIS is easy. The process takes only five minutes.

We chose IIS because most of the applications we use are .NET and are Microsoft technologies that we are using for developing the application, IIS is the most valuable solution for this use case.

For first-time users of IIS, they should have some basic knowledge of what an application pool is, websites, and homepage redirections are.

I rate IIS a nine out of ten.

We use IIS to deploy some of Opentext applications that we need to deploy.

The most valuable feature of IIS is it does not consume a lot of resources. It does not consume a lot of resources, such as memory.

IIS could improve by having some features related to URL rewrite, ARR (Application Request Routing) and HTTPS certificate generation.

I have been using IIS for approximately five years.

IIS is highly stable.

The scalability of IIS is good. It can be scaled easily using Cluster.

We have less than five people using the solution in my company.

I did not use the support from IIS.

We purchased a Microsoft Windows license and the license for IIS came in the package.

We are using this solution because it was recommended for us to use. It is a stable solution.

My advice to others is this is a simple-to-use solution and you can find items with ease. Microsoft has good support for its solutions. You can find the information you need from around the world because Microsoft solutions are widely used. If there are problems you can fix them easily from the support online, such as in forums.

I rate IIS a nine out of ten.

I mainly use IIS to support web applications.

IIS's best features are its management console and stability.

IIS's memory management could be improved.

I've been using IIS for over ten years.

IIS is very stable.

IIS's scalability is good.

Microsoft's technical support is good.

Previously, I used Apache, but it wasn't stable enough.

The initial setup was very easy.

I would rate IIS nine out of ten.