Editing Zeus Web Server

{{Short description|Web server program}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}}
'''Zeus Web Server''' is a discontinued [[Proprietary software|proprietary]] high-performance [[web server]] for [[Unix]] and [[Unix-like]] platforms (including [[Solaris (operating system)|Solaris]], [[FreeBSD]], [[HP-UX]] and [[Linux]]).  It was developed by [[Zeus Technology]], a software company located in [[Cambridge]], [[England]] that was founded in 1995 by [[University of Cambridge]] graduates Damian Reeves and Adam Twiss.

== History ==
Zeus was designed to be a high-performance web server since the beginning of its development in 1995. Until the first decade of the 2000s, it was known as one of the fastest and most scalable web servers available on market.<ref name="ws-zeus-zws-2000">{{cite web|url=http://www.zeus.co.uk/products/zeus3/ |title=Zeus Web Server v3.3.7 |publisher=Zeus Technology |url-status=unfit|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000815084815/http://www.zeus.co.uk/products/zeus3/|archive-date=2000-08-15|access-date=2021-12-18}}</ref><ref name="ws-zeus-zws-2007">{{cite web|url=http://www.zeus.com/products/zws/ |title=ZWS - Zeus Web Server |publisher=Zeus Technology |url-status=unfit|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070621034645/http://www.zeus.com/products/zws/|archive-date=2007-06-21|access-date=2021-12-18}}</ref>

Despite its excellent performance, it never gained more than a few percentage points (less than 3%) in the global usage of most popular web servers.<ref name="netcraft-survey-200212">{{cite web|url=http://survey.netcraft.com/index-200212.html |title=Web Server Survey |publisher=Netcraft |url-status=unfit|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051202112130/http://survey.netcraft.com/index-200212.html |archive-date=2005-12-02|access-date=2021-12-18}}</ref> However, it was commonly used by hardware vendors submitting [[Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation|SPECweb99]] benchmarks for their hardware.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.spec.org/web99/results/web99.html |title=All SPECweb99 Results |publisher=SPEC |date=Nov 21, 2005 |access-date=2008-12-21}}</ref> The SPECweb99 benchmark was retired in 2005 and replaced by [[SPECweb2005]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://spec.org/retired.html |title=Retired SPEC Benchmarks |publisher=SPEC |access-date=2008-12-21}}</ref> While some SPECweb2005 submissions were made using Zeus, by 2008 it was no longer used by the top [[computer hardware]] performers.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://spec.org/web2005/results/web2005.html |title=All SPECweb2005 Results |publisher=SPEC |date=Dec 19, 2008 |access-date=2008-12-21}}</ref>

Support for [[AIX]], [[Tru64]], and [[macOS|Mac OS X]] was dropped on 10 June 2008.<ref name="ws-zws-eol-support-2007">{{cite web|url=http://support.zeus.com/zws/news/2007/12/10/zws_platform_eol_dec2007|title=ZWS: selected platforms - end-of-life announcement|url-status=unfit|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106042206/http://support.zeus.com/zws/news/2007/12/10/zws_platform_eol_dec2007|archive-date=2012-11-06|access-date=2021-12-18}}</ref> No new Zeus releases have been made since January 2010,<ref name="ws-zws-4.3r5-eol">{{cite web|title=ZWS 4.3r5 released|url=http://support.zeus.com/zws/news/2010/01/13/zws_4_3r5_released|url-status=unfit|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121121063000/http://support.zeus.com/zws/news/2010/01/13/zws_4_3r5_released|archive-date=2012-11-21|access-date=2021-12-18}}</ref> and the company no longer offers a similar server solution.  In July 2011, the company was acquired by [[Riverbed Technology]],<ref name="riverbed-buy-zeus">{{Cite web|url=http://www.riverbed.com/us/company/news/press_releases/2011/press_071911b.php|title=Riverbed Expands IT Performance Business with Acquisition of Zeus Technology|publisher=Riverbed Technology|url-status=unfit|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111208012543/http://www.riverbed.com/us/company/news/press_releases/2011/press_071911b.php|archive-date=2011-12-08|access-date=2013-09-08}}</ref> who ended support for Zeus on November 30, 2014.<ref name="riverbed-zws-end-of-support">{{Cite web|url=https://support.riverbed.com/content/support/about_support/end_of_life_policy.html|title=Hardware & Software End of Life Policy (search for 'PL-ZWS-4CPU')|publisher=Riverbed Technology|url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925055448/https://support.riverbed.com/content/support/eos_eoa/stingray_products.html#WebServerandGlobalLoadBalancer |archive-date=2015-09-25|access-date=2021-12-18}}</ref>

== Features ==
In addition to [[static content]] serving, Zeus supported [[dynamic content]] via [[Common Gateway Interface|CGI]], [[FastCGI]], [[Apache JServ]], [[Internet Server Application Programming Interface|ISAPI]], [[Netscape Server Application Programming Interface|NSAPI]], [[mod_perl]], [[Server Side Includes|SSI]] and Zeus Distributed Authentication and Content (ZDAC), a proprietary FastCGI-like protocol. While Zeus mainly competed with other commercial web servers such as [[Oracle iPlanet Web Server]], it also included a high degree of compatibility with [[Apache HTTP Server]] (including [[.htaccess]] support and a [[URL rewriting]] system comparable to Apache's <code>mod_rewrite</code>), with the expectation that Apache users would migrate to Zeus as their server load increased.<ref name="pc-mag-zws-4.0">{{cite web|first=John |last=Clyman |url=https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,11536,00.asp |work=Server's Advantage PC Magazine Editor's Choice Winner |title=Zeus Web Server 4.0 |publisher=PC Magazine |date=2002-01-15 |url-status=unfit|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190221162707/https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,11536,00.asp|archive-date=2019-02-21|access-date=2021-12-18}}</ref> NSAPI and ISAPI were added to ease migrations from [[Internet Information Services|Microsoft IIS]] and Sun Java System Web Server.

== See also ==
*[[Comparison of web server software]]
*[[ApacheBench]] program derived from original ZeusBench used to benchmark performance of Zeus Web Server.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
*[http://www.zeus.com/ Zeus Technology's site] <small>NOTE: no content, redirects to [[Brocade Communications Systems]] site</small>
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080211093558/http://www.zeus.com/support/index.html ZWS Online Support] <small>''(archived link 2008-02-11) newer content but not all available''</small>
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20000818232811/http://support.zeus.com/ ZWS Online Support] <small>''(archived link 2000-08-18) historical documentation''</small>

{{Web server software}}

[[Category:Web server software]]
[[Category:Unix network-related software]]
[[Category:Discontinued software]]