April 29, 2006 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – British-based website Netcraft (http://www.netcraft.com) recently reported statistics that suggest that Apache is now the leading developer of secure web servers. According to Netcraft, 44.0% of secure web sites are run on Apache, compared to 43.8% running on Microsoft servers.
Historically, Microsoft has been a market leader in the area, quickly overtaking Netscape, the original SSL protocol developers. Apache’s rise to the number 1 position has been much less meteoric than Microsoft’s, but as a result, is potentially more significant.
Also significant in the Netcraft’s statistics are indications the two technologies are position on a geographical basis. Microsoft maintains a strong position in the US where historically most (around 70%) of used secure websites were based. Recently though other countries like Japan and Germany have experienced significant growth in the area, and it is these countries where Apache has a stronger foothold.
Operating since 1996, Netcraft's SSL survey tracks global secure web server, server software, operating system and certificate usage and provides custom reports on this and related topics for commercial and other organizations.
