However, Apache is now the fastest growing server in our SSL Server Survey. Clearly something has happened over the last fifteen months, which has made the server attractive to people wishing to use encrypted transactions. Verisign announced that they were prepared to licence their certificates to Apache sites. Previously Apache was not an approved server, though some sites were prepared to run Apache SSL sites with Verisign certs without approval. Apache is still gaining share with large companies, as wider publicity makes corporates more amenable to running the server.
Large companies are more likely to be involved in electronic commerce and encrypted transactions.
The increase in ecommerce facilities offered by hosting companies and ISPs looking for value added services, and the increasing use of Thawte's wildcard X.509 certificates. ISPs, hosting companies, and wildcard certificate users are user communities where Apache features most strongly. All of which shows that Apache's overwhelming popularity in the relatively low value high volume hosting market does not necessarily preclude it from being useful in much lower volume and higher value applications. Several times each month we will be featuring a news story that covers the Internet server software scene. A complete listing of the latest news, product updates, and press releases for servers and development tools is available in our Server News Section .