Bill Laing, General Manager of Microsoft's Windows Server Division, held forth a bit at Tech-Ed, held recently in Orlando, about Redmond's Internet Information Services 7.0 (aka IIS7) web hosting solution. Some highlights of what he said:

"We announced that the Server Core installation option of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 will now include IIS7...with IIS7 available in the Server Core installation option, customers get this modular, low-footprint Web hosting platform on top of all of the other great benefits that Server Core’s low-profile installation provides."
 
"IT professionals can install Windows Server 2008 with minimal server functionality for select roles – including DHCP, DNS, file server, virtualization, domain controller and now IIS7 – without any non-essential services and applications. By only including what is required for the designated roles, a Server Core installation will generally require less maintenance and fewer updates since there are fewer features to manage. And, since there are fewer programs and features installed and running on the server, there are fewer attack vectors exposed to the network, resulting in a reduced attack surface."

"IIS7 is definitely good news for Web hosters. From their feedback to us, we know how concerned hosters are about QoS issues, performance problems and perhaps most importantly, security. IIS7 makes big strides in all of these areas and provide a top notch experience for hosting customers and hosters alike. Simply put, IIS7 gives hosters a cost-effective, more scalable Web server for delivering reliable Web hosting to a broader set of customers."

"IIS7 lowers costs by providing a new, scalable shared hosting architecture that can host thousands of Web sites on a single IIS7 server without sacrificing isolation or reliability. It also helps Web hosters reach more customers by including a new FastCGI module, capable of providing fast and reliable hosted PHP and other Web frameworks. Finally, IIS7’s FTP server provides Web hosters with a fully integrated Web/ FTP server that includes modern publishing capabilities, including FTP/SSL and membership-based authentication."