We started using the solution for running web applications. We have custom applications that we develop for different customers. They are for case management, government statistics, and records. It depends on what we are running. We have run it for payment integrations in different types of platforms.
CEO at WilCom Systems Ltd
Easy to use, cost-effective, and the return on investment is instantaneous on the cloud
Pros and Cons
- "The product is easy to use."
- "The user interface could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The product is easy to use. It might be easy because we've used it for long. When we use a product for a long time, it becomes second nature. We have never had any security breaches.
What needs improvement?
The user interface could be improved. We do not like it when the UI is changed often. Every time there is a change, we need to restart the server.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for 15 to 20 years.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is completely stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have not seen any issue with the scalability. We don't have very complex web services or web applications.
How was the initial setup?
The setup is straightforward. We know how it works. The deployment can be done within hours. Many things depend on the applications. The solution can be deployed on the cloud and on-premise. We use the control panel of the console to deploy the product. The deployment process is similar for the cloud and on-premise versions. On the cloud, the only difference is that the server is not with us.
What about the implementation team?
We deploy the tool in-house.
What was our ROI?
The return on investment is almost instantaneous on the cloud version. We use it when we need it. We do not pay anything upfront. There is no CapEx.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product is cost-effective. We do not have to buy it. The tool is included with Windows. We license the Windows environment on a monthly basis. It is expensive. Sometimes, it is cheaper to run Linux than Windows.
What other advice do I have?
I will recommend the tool to others. Whenever people ask us about web servers, we suggest that they use IIS. It is easy to use. We did not have many issues except when we occasionally had to restart the server. I encourage everyone to use the product. Our traffic is not as big. We have no issues with performance. Overall, I rate the tool a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Operations Executive at Quess
A simple and easy-to-use solution but not recommended for public apps
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is simple and very easy to manage compared to Linux."
- "Compared to Linux, the solution’s Windows patching is slower. I would like to improve it."
What is most valuable?
The solution is simple and very easy to manage compared to Linux.
What needs improvement?
Compared to Linux, the solution’s Windows patching is slower. I would like to improve it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the product for ten years. I use the tool’s latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the solution’s stability a seven.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the tool’s scalability around six to seven out of ten. There are around 4000 users for the solution in our company.
How are customer service and support?
The tool’s tech support is not excellent but good. They take too much time to solve an issue.
How was the initial setup?
The tool’s initial setup is straightforward. The deployment can be completed within a day. I will hardly take seven to eight hours. However, the time will depend on how you are deploying it.
What about the implementation team?
The tool’s deployment was done in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution’s pricing is yearly. The pricing is affordable and not high.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate the overall solution a six out of ten. We have around five to six developers and engineers for the solution’s deployment and maintenance. You can use the solution if your website is not too big or complicated. However, if it is big and complicated, then you need to use Apache or Red Hat. This tool can be used for internal purposes. But if you plan to host a public app, then I wouldn’t recommend the tool.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Senior Cloud Solutions Engineer at Znet Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
An easy-to-use and reliable web server with zero setup cost
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is easy to use and easy to understand."
- "Presently, some developers do not have technical knowledge of managing IIS, so that needs to be improved in the next release."
What is our primary use case?
I use IIS to deploy applications for customers and end users who want to publish their application or domain and access the same globally. They have to deploy their application over IIS so that some, like Binding, MDIS, and other application security services, can be configured.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is easy to use and easy to understand.
What needs improvement?
Some developing aspects like coding have to be improved in the solution. Presently, some developers do not have technical knowledge of managing IIS, so that needs to be improved in the next release.
I definitely want the core part to be differentiated from the technical part.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using IIS for approximately four to five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a Microsoft feature so it is definitely a good and stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable product. Every product has scale-based technologies so if you are good at understanding new technologies and new features, and if you have an interest in the same, then you are definitely going to like it.
How are customer service and support?
I have not been in a situation to contact the support team yet as the solution’s features are very reliable and expressive.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was very easy. It took approximately 15-20 minutes.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is no license required for the product as it is role-based. Whenever you go for a Windows platform server, the role has to be installed directly from the server manager.
There is no additional cost that has to be paid for that. It is free to use.
What other advice do I have?
I give this solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
System Administrator at Confidential
Easy to install, and integrate with the operating system
Pros and Cons
- "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."
- "I think that the IIS includes most features that are required by web applications so that they can run smoothly on Windows operating system."
- "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."
What is our primary use case?
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.
What is most valuable?
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.
What needs improvement?
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.
For how long have I used the solution?
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.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
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.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
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.
How are customer service and support?
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.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
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.
How was the initial setup?
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.
What about the implementation team?
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.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
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.
What other advice do I have?
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.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Warehouse staff at H&M
Highly stable solution with excellent management console
Pros and Cons
- "IIS's best features are its management console and stability."
- "IIS's memory management could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
I mainly use IIS to support web applications.
What is most valuable?
IIS's best features are its management console and stability.
What needs improvement?
IIS's memory management could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using IIS for over ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
IIS is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
IIS's scalability is good.
How are customer service and support?
Microsoft's technical support is good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, I used Apache, but it wasn't stable enough.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was very easy.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate IIS nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Information security consultant at Ypsilon System
Provides flexibility and full control over the server, performs well, and is easy to deploy
Pros and Cons
- "The product is flexible."
- "The security must be improved."
What is our primary use case?
The solution is used to install and run applications on the server. It's similar to web servers. We host our internal applications on it.
What is most valuable?
We can have full control of the server from the configuration to the OS. The product is flexible. It provides much more flexibility than the cloud.
What needs improvement?
The security must be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution since 2003.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The tool is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability depends on the hardware. We have five users in our organization. We will eventually increase the usage.
How was the initial setup?
It is very easy to deploy the tool. It took us 20 minutes to deploy it. The deployment process is very easy. We just need to prepare the installation and run it on the server.
What about the implementation team?
The solution can be deployed in-house. We do not need any assistance.
What was our ROI?
ROI is good.
What other advice do I have?
We have moved to the cloud. We must assess the vulnerabilities of the server. Then, we must perform the server hardening procedure of Windows. The impact of the product on our strategies depends on our use cases. The performance depends on the hardware. Generally, the tool performs well. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Data Engineer at Berief Food GmbH
A stable and easy-to-configure solution that provides a lot of good features
Pros and Cons
- "The product is easy to configure."
- "The solution must improve the integration between its databases."
What is our primary use case?
We use the product for our web applications.
What is most valuable?
The product is easy to configure. It has a lot of good features.
What needs improvement?
The solution must improve the integration between its databases. It should also improve the definition of IP addresses and ports for connection.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for more than ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the tool’s stability more than eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Compared to other web application services, IIS has better scalability. We have many different programs. A part of our customers use the solution.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is a little complex. Even if we make a little mistake, the configuration still works well.
What about the implementation team?
We need three networking personnel to maintain the product.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We pay a yearly licensing fee for the solution.
What other advice do I have?
I look for network administration aspects in the product. A software person might have a different perspective. I did not configure the solution. My friends configured it. When my friends have a problem, I help them to solve it. IIS is related to software engineers and programmers. IIS is the best solution. Its services are better than other products. Overall, I rate the tool more than eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
System Engineer at Teleperformance
Easy to manage platform with good scalability
Pros and Cons
- "The initial setup is simple."
- "The platform's stability could be better."
What is our primary use case?
We are using the platform for automatic web services.
What is most valuable?
The platform is easy to manage.
What needs improvement?
The platform's stability could be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using IIS for a few years. At present, we are the latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the platform's stability an eight out of ten. It could be improved.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have 2,000 IIS users in our organization. It is a scalable platform.
How are customer service and support?
The platform's technical support services are satisfactory.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is simple. It does not take too long to set up.
What was our ROI?
The platform generates a good return on investment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
IIS's pricing is reasonable.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend IIS to others and rate it a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT Project Manager at LTS
Cloud-based Web-server solution that is easy to use and secure
Pros and Cons
- "It is an easy-to-use and secure program."
- "IIS has some stability issues and needs restarting."
What is our primary use case?
My company is a reseller of cloud-based products, and we are using IIS for this.
What is most valuable?
It is an easy-to-use and secure program.
What needs improvement?
The solution can be made more compatible. IIS also has some stability issues and needs restarting.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is mostly stable, but sometimes there are issues and needs a restart. I rate it eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution. Around 50 users are using it presently in our organization.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was easy, and it took one week to be deployed. For deployment, first, we are planning, second, we are implementing on-premise, and third we are publishing the cloud. For maintenance, we need managers, admins, and engineers.
What other advice do I have?
The solution is simple, and you can find the deployments everywhere. I rate it nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Cloud Analyst at Cloud2Go
Is simple, easy to configure and implement, and is stable and scalable
Pros and Cons
- "IIS is easy to configure in terms of websites and other solutions."
- "I would like to see NLB features in IIS."
What is our primary use case?
I use IIS to publish our website internally. It helps me to publish information about the teams and provides flexible communication.
What is most valuable?
IIS is easy to configure in terms of websites and other solutions.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see NLB features in IIS.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for 20 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
For stability, I would give a rating of nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability at ten out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate Microsoft's technical support at ten out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy.
What was our ROI?
We have seen an ROI. We have been able to purchase the solution at a good price and implement it easily. It has been working fine for us.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price is good.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend IIS because it's simple, easy to configure and implement, and has good technical support. Overall, I would rate IIS at nine on a scale from one to ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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