IIS was almost a stealth success for Microsoft. Version 3.0 in particular, with its introduction of Active Server Pages (ASP), probably did more to put Microsoft on the Internet than any other product the company had produced at the time. The ease with which IIS could be deployed, and the ease with which developers could create ASP applications, quickly made IIS 3.0 the top commercial Web server product on the market. Literally, tens of thousands of Web servers ran IIS, and Microsoft rode that wave of success and introduced a number of successful products that built on IIS, including Exchange's Outlook Web Access, Site Server and Commerce Server, the Microsoft Commercial Internet System, and many more.

IIS 4.0 was introduced for Windows NT Server 4.0, and IIS 5.0 was included with Windows 2000. Windows XP included a minor upgrade, IIS 5.1, and now we're looking at IIS 6.0, bundled with Windows Server 2003. A lot has changed since IIS first became a success. In fact, many of the changes in IIS 6.0 are a direct reaction to IIS' overall success as a product; IIS 6.0's new architecture, for example, is designed to cope with even greater numbers of Web site users and to provide better security and application stability.

In Windows Server 2003 Delta Guide, my coauthor and I introduced IIS 6.0 and tried to cover its new features as best we could in a single chapter. We quickly realized that we were in over our heads, and that an entire book on IIS 6.0 was needed. With his extensive background in Web server technology, Martin C. Brown was an ideal choice to write that book, and you hold the results in your hand. This book is everything the Delta Guide series was meant to be, and will provide experienced Windows and IIS administrators with the fastest possible means of understanding and utilizing the many new and changed features in IIS 6.0.

It's fitting that the second Delta Guide should cover IIS because the Delta Guide series has been a sort of “stealth success” in its own right. I'm delighted with the reader response to Windows Server 2003 Delta Guide, which clearly demonstrates that readers are tired of paying for the same old text over and over again just to learn what's new and changed in Microsoft products. To help satisfy your thirst for more details on what's new and changed, go to the book's product page at www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn-0672325756. There, you will find book updates, additional details on new and changed technologies, and much more. Contributors include Delta Guide authors and other industry luminaries, and you're sure to find something useful there.

Now, sit back and turn the page. You've found the fastest, most reliable way to quickly upgrade your IIS administration skills to cover IIS 6.0.