Microsoft IIS is aiming to cut significantly into Apache's global installed user base, but according to the October 1 numbers posted at Security Space, the plan isn't coming off quite as Microsoft had hoped. Apache's installed user base dropped slightly from 73.68 percent to 73.62 percent, but Microsoft's IIS share is holding steady at 19.4 percent.

There was a small increase in the number of IIS Web servers - nearly 36,000, but the number of Apache servers jumped by nearly 116,000. The Security Space numbers sharply contradict Microsoft's assertion that Apache leads in the number of installed servers by just 10 percent. Apache and Microsoft lead the market with a combined total of more than 23.5 million Web servers worldwide.

Claiming the top prize in the Web server sweepstakes has been on Microsoft's to-do list for more than two years, while it readied its IIS7 release. The Latest release of IIS is completely re-designed with a view toward modularization, which can both reduce the size of the server and increase its security. The changes don't seem to have had much effect on administrator behavior, however. Most sites are still firmly affixed in Apache's camp.