IIS 6.0 is faster, more secure, more stable, and more scalable than any previous version of IIS, but IIS 6.0 is not available on any prior release of Windows. Almost anyone doing any type of web hosting on an older version of IIS will immediately see performance and stability improvements. IIS 6.0 will allow you to potentially host thousands more websites per server, and startup and shutdown times for IIS are dramatically faster. IIS 6.0 can serve static content up to 200% faster than IIS 5.0 and can better isolate your applications to keep the server healthy - even when an application misbehaves.

The vast majority of applications that run on Windows 2000 will run fine on Windows Server 2003. Microsoft SQL Server 2000 runs great, as do most other Microsoft applications - with one notable exception. Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 will *not* run on Windows Server 2003. Microsoft will be releasing the next version of Exchange Server later this year, and this will be well suited for Windows Server 2003. If you have any custom applications, you should check with the vendor or your developers for compatibility.

Microsoft has released four (4) separate editions of Windows Server 2003. They are the Web Edition, Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, and Datacenter Edition. The main differences between these editions is the number of processors and the amount of RAM they each support.

1.

The Web Edition is a version that is specifically designed to only serve the role of a web server. Microsoft does not allow running software like SQL Server or an Internet mail server on the Web edition. The Web Edition supports two (2) processors and up to two (2) GB of RAM.

2.

The Standard Edition supports up to four (4) processors and four (4) GB or RAM. It will run almost any application and is a full-featured version of Windows Server 2003.

3.

The Enterprise Edition - This edition will support up to eight server clusters for clustering SQL Server or other cluster-aware applications. It also will support up to eight (8) processors and up to 32 GB of RAM. There is also a 64-bit version of The Enterprise Edition for use on Intel Itanium processors.

4.

Finally, the Datacenter Edition supports VERY high-end hardware, including support for up to 64 processors and 512 GB of RAM. This version is only for very specialized application requirements and will probably see very little use in typical web-facing applications.

YES! By all means, you should upgrade to Windows Server 2003. Many NT 4.0 users avoided Windows 2000 Server because they were happy with NT and were a little wary of Active Directory. Well, Active Directory is here to stay and better than ever in Windows Server 2003! Microsoft is gradually phasing out support for Windows NT 4.0 and support or upgrades for NT will eventually be unavailable.