Strong Demand for Internet Information Server, The New Microsoft Web Server

On February 12, 1996, we announced that Microsoft® Internet Information Server (IIS) could be downloaded free of charge over the Internet. In response, more than 14,000 new customers registered to download IIS in less than five days, far exceeding even our most optimistic expectations, joining the 16,000 who already signed up beginning in December as part of our Beta program. In fact, the nature of the customer response has been so overwhelming that the Internet traffic to Microsoft saturated our T3 line with download requests! On the first day alone, over 110 Gigabytes of IIS were downloaded from the Microsoft site. In response, we are working with our OEM partners and Microsoft subsidiaries to offer alternative download sites across the Internet and around the world. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, but appreciate the strong early support for IIS.

Some Perspective:

• Every thirty seconds.… In the first five days that IIS was available on the Web, a new registration to download IIS was received approximately every thirty seconds. And the number of registrations remains strong. By the end of the week second week of availability, we expect to have an additional 10,000 new registrations.
• Netscape® eclipsed.… The number of people who registered for IIS in the first week is larger than the number of Netscape Web servers in use today on the Internet. According to the February 1996 Web Server survey from Netcraft, there are about 11,000 Netscape Web servers in use today on the Internet.
• Web servers on the Internet.…Over 30,000 customers have requested IIS in the last two months and we expect the list to swell to 50,000 by the end of February. According to Netcraft, there are approximately 80,000 Web servers on the Internet today. Industry estimates by leading analysts put the total number of Web servers on both the intranet and on the Internet around 120,000 at the end of 1995.
• Windows NT™ -based Web servers.…In a little over a week, the number of people who registered to receive IIS eclipsed the total number of Windows NT-based web servers currently deployed on intranets and on the Internet (18,000 at end of 1995 according to leading industry analysts). It is estimated that 15% of the total Web server deployments at the end of 1995 were based on the Windows NT Operating System platform, and that number is expected to grow to over 30% by the end of 1996. We expect IIS to play a major role in driving this massive growth.

In addition to the huge demand for IIS over the Web, nearly all the leading PC Server manufacturers (over 25 at last count), at least 50 independent software vendors (ISVs), thousands of Microsoft Solution Providers, several Fortune 500 companies, and top Internet "Web masters" have announced deployment and support of IIS. In the past week alone, over 100 partners and customers have signed up to be part of the Microsoft BackOffice Logo program. For more details, please see our press release from last week entitled "Industry Embraces Microsoft Internet Information Server™".

©1996 Microsoft Corporation