Multiple choice

Like many organizations, your company is probably facing a growing demand throughout your enterprise for more Web servers that can be used for intranet applications, extranet partnerships, and development or lab platforms.

Now is the time to evaluate the best Web server platform for the future. To lend a hand, we've collected information about Web servers from 19 vendors in our interactive Buyer's Guide.

Settling on a single product should help you minimize administrator training. Standardization can also reduce busy work because more than half of the vendors we polled offer products that let you manage simultaneous changes to multiple servers from a single console.

Attention, shoppers! Today, many Web sites are being deployed for Internet commerce. Security and database support are two major factors to consider when setting up shop on the World Wide Web. If your site isn't secure and doesn't have the ability to run Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to encrypt pages on which secure information is passed, customers may not shop there. While more than a dozen vendors we surveyed include SSL support with their products, a handful fail to offer it or make it available only as an extra-cost add-on. If you're running a database that houses your inventory and accounting data, you'll want to make sure that the Web server you choose can tie into those back-end systems. Direct application programming links such as Netscape's NSAPI, Microsoft's ISAPI and O'Reilly's WSAPI make for faster transactions than generic Common Gateway Interface scripts.

Make sure the software you choose is available not only on the hardware platforms you run today, but also on the platforms you're likely to run in the future. If you're worried about Windows 2000, don't limit yourself to a server that runs only on NT. If you think Linux may gain a toehold in your shop, look for a Web server with a Linux flavor.

Linux software is often free. Our chart features six freeware choices, including Apache Web Server and Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS), which is bundled with Windows NT Server 4.0. Combined, Apache's and Microsoft's options account for more than 75% of the Web server market, according to the Netcraft Web Server Survey (www.netcraft.com/survey).

The rest of the Web servers in our chart cost less than $2,000, with the exception of Information Builders' $25,000-and-up Web390, which runs on IBM's MVS mainframe operating system. Make a feature wish list first, then let your budget be your guide.

Fortunately, your options have never been better. Our online Buyer's Guide Chart highlights many vendors that weren't around the last time we looked at this market, and all of the vendors' products have grown in capability and sophistication.

When you make your assessment, look for a Web server that's easy to manage. In most cases, this means a well-designed graphical user interface (GUI). GUIs that are tied into Windows NT make it easy for administrators to learn and retain key administrative features. Netscape and others that run on diverse platforms offer browser-based GUIs.

Administration, of course, isn't the only aspect of Web server management. SNMP support ties your Web server into your network management system to alert you if your system fails. Of the products surveyed in our Buyer's Guide, only Lotus Domino Application Server R5, Netscape's Enterprise Server 3.6 and IIS 4.0 come with SNMP support.

After your site has been up for a while, you're going to want to know who's visiting it and what they're looking at. All Web servers create activity logs, but there are a variety of log file formats, including NCSA, CERN, Common and Extended. Only a few Web servers come with log analysis capabilities, and they are limited at best. You'll probably want to look outside the Web server market to find reporting with a reasonable level of sophistication.

A look at platforms

To minimize confusion, chances are you'll want to install a Web server on a hardware platform with which you're already familiar. It's easier to consider Unix if you have a Unix guru on staff. Unix diehards though aren't likely to welcome NT no matter how positive its reputation for easy manageability.

The Apache Group offers the widest hardware platform support with its Apache Web Server 1.3.4, which runs on NT and a variety of Unix platforms. However, the NT version of Apache is brand-new and not yet as stable as its Unix counterpart, the company warns. On the other hand, Microsoft's IIS 4.0 is integrated with - but limited to - its NT operating system.

Securing third place in Netcraft's Web Server Survey is Netscape, whose Enterprise Server 3.6 supports NT, Sun Solaris, HP-UX, IBM AIX, DEC Unix, SGI Irix and, by the second quarter of 1999, Linux.

Because Unix runs on hardware platforms that are highly scalable, it is generally the best operating system for large sites with heavy traffic. Apache has the largest installed base for the Unix platform, followed by Acme Laboratories' thttpd and C2Net Software's Stronghold. Apache and thttpd are free. Stronghold, which is essentially Apache with support, costs $995 - a small price to pay in a corporate environment in which technical support is a key element.

As Linux enters the limelight, we expect to see it become more widely used as a platform for Web servers. Already, Apache, America Online's AOLserver, Idonex's Roxen Challenger and Zeus Technology's Zeus Web Server 3.0 support Linux. And Red Hat Software's Secure Web Server 2.0 is one of the first Linux-based offerings to support Secure Sockets Layer, the most popular protocol for sending secure pages over the World Wide Web.

There are four packages that run on MacOS, though we wouldn't recommend running your business on the Macintosh platform (or on Windows 95/98, for that matter) because of performance and scalability issues. However, the Mac is fine for intranet Web sites. StarNine Technologies' WebSTAR boasts the largest market share for Macintosh Web servers, according to Netcraft.

If you plan to host your site on a mainframe or mid-range system, your choices are limited. Only Apache, Information Builders and Lotus offer mainframe or mid-range support. On the plus side, you can use one of these packages to leverage your current operating system and then migrate to other platforms without changing the Web server software.

Looking ahead

If your network infrastructure of tomorrow is unclear, don't worry. Today's trends are pointing toward expanded flexibility tomorrow.

Over the past year, we've seen the emergence of the Web server appliance - hardware, often running Linux, bundled with Web server software. The hardware makes it easy to quickly drop in a departmental server with minimal headaches. Look for more of these devices as hardware prices continue to fall.

While intranet installations started to grow in 1997 and exploded in 1998, Netscape predicts that 1999 will be the year of the extranet, partially due to the explosion of business-to-business communication. We also expect more consolidation of multiple smaller physical servers onto high-end hardware platforms. By the end of 2000, a single server may be able to support tens of thousands of virtual domains.

Finally, a last word of advice. Don't look for everything in one box. No matter which Web server you choose, you'll probably still have to purchase add-on software to create the perfect Web environment.

RELATED LINKS Buyer's guide: Web servers
Select the criteria most important to you, then see which servers support them. Or compare two or more servers in categories you select. Plus, download complete spec sheets for each server.

Review: Web servers
We test eight servers. See why we rated Netscape's the best. Network World, 2/15/99.

Downloads: Web servers
Don't just take our word. Download eval and free servers and try them out for yourself.

Sweet is vice president of Edgewood Consulting Group. She can be reached at lsweet@ edgewood-group .com