Is Microsoft ignoring the mainstream media server space?
Mainstream media publications may not be a high value market for Microsoft, but the segment scores very high as far as visibility and perception go. Who would really not love to have a “Powered by” label on a high volume traffic website like the New York Times, as a showpiece for their product? What you are going to read is by no means a scientific or foolproof way of coming to any conclusion. It is based on the headers that the server returns and Netcraft coming in as the fallback option when faced with the ‘unknown’ server signature.
The list is broken down into three parts. The first is a list of the websites of the top twenty newspapers in America. The second is a smaller listing of European publications. The third is a list of publications from India, because, well that’s where I come from.
The US List
USA Today
IIS5 & BigIp
The Wall Street Journal
IBM WebSphere Application Server
The New York Times
SunOne Webserver
LA Times
SunOne Webserver
The Washington Post
SunOne Webserver
Chicago Tribune
SunOne Webserver
New York Daily News
Apache
Philadelphia Inquirer
Apache & Akamai
Rocky Mountain News
Netscape Enterprise 4.1
Houston Chronicle
Apache 2.0.x + Akamai
New York Post
Apache 2.0.x
Detrori Free Press
IIS6
Dallas Morning News
Apache 2.0.x
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Apache 1.3.x & Akamai
Boston Globe
Apache 2.0.x
The Star-Ledger
Apache
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Apache 1.3.x
Arizona Republic
Apache 2.0.x
Newsday
SunOne Webserver
San Francisco Chronicle
Apache 1.3.x
Apache: 11
SunOne Webserver: 5
IIS: 2
Websphere Application Server: 1
Netscape Enterprise: 1
Oracle Application Server: 0
Java Server Pages: 0
The European List
International Herald Tribune
Apache
Le Monde
Apache & Akamai
The Jerusalem Post
Java Server Pages & Akamai
Der Spiegel
Apache 1.3.x
El Pais
Apache & Akamai
Corriere Della Sera
Apache 2.0.x
The Guardian
Apache
The Independent
Oracle-Application-Server-10g
The Sun
Apache 1.3.x
The Mirror
Apache 1.3.x
BBC News
Apache
South China Morning Post
Netscape Enterprise 3.6
Apache: 9
SunOne Webserver: 0
IIS: 0
Websphere Application Server: 0
Netscape Enterprise: 1
Oracle Application Server: 1
Java Server Pages: 1
The Indian List
NDTV
IIS5 & Akamai
Rediff
Apache 2.0.x & Akamai
Indiatimes
IIS6 & Akamai
Hindustan Times
Netscape Enterprise 6.0
The Hindu
Apache 2.2.x
CNN-IBN
Apache 2.2.x
CNBC TV18-India
Apache 2.2.x
Sify.com
Apache 2.0.x
Mumbai Mirror
IIS6
The Indian Express
Apache 2.2.x
Mid Day
IIS6
The Pioneer
IIS5
Tehelka.com
IIS4
WebDunia.com
IIS5
The Telegraph
SunOne & ASP
Malayala Manorama
IIS6 & Akamai
Business Standard
Apache 2.2.x
Apache: 7
SunOne Webserver: 1
IIS: 9
Websphere Application Server: 0
Netscape Enterprise: 1
Oracle Application Server: 0
Java Server Pages: 0
The Final Count
Apache: 27
IIS: 14
SunOne: 6
Netscape Enterprise: 3
Websphere Application Server: 1
Oracle Application Server: 1
Java Server Pages: 1
Couple of interesting observations:
- 3 out of 20 in the US use a CDN (Akamai)
- 3 out of 12 in the Europe chart use a CDN (Akamai)
- 4 out of 18 in India use a CDN (Akamai)
- Sun is impressive with its pitch in US, but non existent in Europe and India (with the exception one site which is running ASP via SunOne).
- No Apache 2.2.x in the US list
- IIS does well in India
- Netscape Enterprise is still around from version 3.6 to 6.0
- Help! Somebody out there still uses IIS4 on a live website. Line them up and shoot them!
One of the main reasons why this might not be a high value market for Microsoft is that it has become more or less the norm for media websites with huge traffic to get on the Akamai CDN these days than to scale vertically or horizontally to serve the surge in traffic. In fact, some websites on the list run on ancient five to six-year-old servers, running the origin servers for Akamai. From that point of view, Microsoft has little to gain because these guys are not buying new licenses for new CPUs or new servers.
Another interesting trend is the use of acceleration and caching devices like BigIp and Netscaler, that used to be the domain of major ecommerce operations. It is hard to predict and tune your infrastructure in a media set up. The traffic patterns are unpredictable and after a while you really don’t want to break you head over your squid clusters and nothing works as well as a well set-up acceleration device that does TCP offloading.
More to come later.
p.s: The US top-20 list has been sourced from here.
