Benefits

Windows Server 2003, Web Edition, provides the following benefits to customers:

• A highly effective platform for ASP.NET-based intranet and Internet deployments. Windows Server 2003, Web Edition, includes the newly re-architected IIS 6.0, ASP.NET, and the Microsoft .NET Framework.
  
  
• Dedicated Web-serving functionality that supports two-way symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), 2 gigabytes (GB) of RAM, and 10 in-bound server message block (SMB) connections for content publishing.
  
  
• An economical Web server that is competitively priced for self-hosting organizations needing to deploy Web pages, Web sites, Web applications, and Web services rapidly.
  
  
• As with every member of the Windows Server 2003 family, Windows Server 2003, Web Edition, is built on industry standards that allow organizations to extend existing Web applications and quickly develop new ones. Web developers not only can build Web pages, but also Web services that can communicate with other platforms using standards-based interfaces like XML and SOAP. This level of cost-effective application development encourages business productivity and flexibility and also increases business solution opportunities.

Usage

Windows Server 2003, Web Edition, can be used solely to deploy Web pages, Web sites, Web applications, and Web services. Customers can use Windows Server 2003, Web Edition, to install the following:

• Web server software; for example, IIS.
• Non-enterprise database engine software licensed to support not more than 25 concurrent users; for example, Microsoft SQL ServerT 2000 Desktop Engine.
• Web availability management software; for example, Microsoft Application Center.

Client access licenses (CALs) do not apply to Windows Server 2003, Web Edition. However, Windows Server 2003, Web Edition, can be used as the scale-out front end for applications such as Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA) and Windows SharePointT Services. In these scale-out configurations, Windows Server CALs and/or Exchange CALs may still be required.

In these types of configurations, Windows Server 2003, Web Edition, offers customers an economical way to deploy scale-out applications, thanks to the competitively priced licensing model.

Limitations

Windows Server 2003, Web Edition, is designed specifically for dedicated Web serving needs, and its functionality has certain limitations as follows:

• Although computers running Windows Server 2003, Web Edition, can be members of a Microsoft Active Directory® service domain, Windows Server 2003, Web Edition, cannot be a domain controller. Consequently, organizations cannot use Windows Server 2003, Web Edition, alone to apply certain management features, including Group Policy, Software Restriction Policies, Remote Installation Services, Microsoft Metadirectory Services, Internet Authentication Service (IAS), and others.
• Organizations cannot use Windows Server 2003, Web Edition, to deploy enterprise Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) services. UDDI is an essential component for enabling discovery and reuse of XML Web services.

For these capabilities, the following editions of Windows Server 2003 can be used instead:

Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition.
Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition.
Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition.
Small businesses evaluating their first general-purpose server should consider Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS).

All the core features in Windows Server 2003, Web Edition, including IIS 6.0, .NET Framework, and ASP.NET, are also included in the other members of the Windows Server 2003 family.

System Requirements