2009Microsoft IIS vs. Apache / Who

Serves More?- A study

Vijay Prasad Gupta

ECM/Web Architect

Purpose of the Study

• Back in 2007, Microsoft-IIS used to serve 50% of the Top 20 Fortune companies (Reference: 1)

• This study was aimed to find how this has changed in

the last two years

• The study was conducted using Firefox 3.0.11 and

LiveHTTPHeaders (A firefox extension) to view HTTP Response Headers of each of the 20 website to find out

what web server they are using (Reference: 2)

Web servers of the top 20 Fortune 500 companies for 2009

Rank Company Web Server

1 Exxon Mobil Microsoft-IIS 6.0

2 Wal-Mart Stores Microsoft-IIS/6.0

3 Chevron Microsoft-IIS/6.0

4 ConocoPhillips Microsoft-IIS/6.0

5 General Electric Sun-ONE-Web-Server/6.1

6 General Motors Sun-ONE-Web-Server/6.1

7 Ford Motor IBM_HTTP_Server/6.1.0.21 Apache/2.0.47

8 AT&T Apache

9 Hewlett-Packard Apache

10 Valero Energy Microsoft-IIS/6.0

11 Bank of America Corp. Sun-ONE-Web-Server/6.1

12 Citigroup Unknown

13 Berkshire Hathaway Microsoft-IIS/6.0

14 International Business Machines IBM_HTTP_Server

15 McKesson Microsoft-IIS/6.0

16 J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Apache

17 Verizon Communications Apache

18 Cardinal Health Microsoft-IIS/6.0

19 CVS Caremark Apache

20 Procter & Gamble Apache

* Top 20 Fortune List: Reference 3

Graph showing the web servers of the top 20 Fortune 500 companies for 2009

Web Server of Top 20 Fortune 500 Companies (2009)

40%

30%

15%

10%

5%

Microsoft-IIS

Apache

Sun-ONE-Web-Server

IBM_HTTP_Server

Unknown

Study Results

• The data shows that though Microsoft IIS still serves the majority of Fortune 20 companies in 2009, but it’s share have declined by 20% (It came down from 10 to 8)

• On the other hand, Apache have gained the share by 100% (It has increased from 3 to 6). This is consistent with the overall trends towards open source and adoption of LAMP technologies. Note that Apache has increased its share at the expense of both Microsoft IIS and IBM HTTP Server

• Sun one has maintained its position as-is

References

1. Microsoft IIS vs. Apache / Who Serves More? (2007):

http://www.search-this.com/2007/06/27/microsoft-iis-vs-apache-who-serves-more/

2. LiveHTTPHeaders: http://livehttpheaders.mozdev.org/

3. Fortune 500 List 2009:http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2009/full_list/