Versora Ships IIS-To-Apache Migration Tool

Linux ISV Versora announced Tuesday a tool to ease migration from Microsoft's Internet Information Services Web server to the Apache Web server running on Novell SUSE Enterprise Server.

The Santa Barbara, Calif., company said it has begun shipping Progression Web, a platform that automates data migration from Microsoft IIS servers to the Apache open-source Web server running on Novell SUSE Linux servers.

The migration tool transfers all significant files, security, database tables and configuration settings from an IIS Server to an Apache 1.3 or 2.0. For instance, all passwords, authorizations and authentications can be carried over from the Microsoft environment to open-source Apache.

The Versora software is priced at $279.

Microsoft's newest battle cry against Linux holds that commercial distributions from Red Hat and Novell are not free. When it comes to Web servers, however, customers are migrating to open source because it is both free and more secure, said Versora's chief executive."While Apache is free and Microsoft [IIS] isn't, free isn't always cheaper," said Mike Sheffey, Versora CEO. "The reason businesses are moving from IIS to Apache is not because it's free, rather because it is highly secure and stable."

One Linux solution provider that has written custom scripts to perform IIS-to-Apache migrations for its customers says the market needs a commercial migration tool.

"There's pretty significant demand ... and increasing demand as people move to Linux and need tools to automate the migration," said Gregg Rosenberg, CTO of RICIS, Tinley Park, Ill., a Unix/Linux consulting services company that has performed IIS to Apache migrations. "We're seeing production-quality migration tools, and for consultants it's a big plus."