Apache on Windows in production environment? Why not?

"Everyone" know that Apache is for Linux/Unix and on Windows IIS is the way to go.

However, I'm not a pro at Linux and it would be an enormous relief for me to use just the same setup in the production environment that I use during development. I'm a solo developer and I'm trying to make things as simple as possible. I've already got rid of other issues like storage (->cloud) emails (->postmark).

So, what are the real drawbacks that can happen when I just put Apache in Windows virtual private server from Rackspace and use it as the main production environment for a PHP project? Money for more VPS resources is not that big issue compared to the possibility of not having to learn a different OS.

Super-heavy traffic is not expected. Also my PHP project can be quite optimized. There are some heavy scripts, but only for the inside (logged) users. All else can be served more or less statically.

Solution 1:

As long as your platform is a server platform and not workstation, it will work. (windows workstation platforms has limitation on the number of concurrent connections)

Linux is way more efficient, but if your site pass the load tests you expect on windows os... no reason to go to Linux. (besides price, stability, resouece consumptions... :-) )

Solution 2:

Why do you need Apache? You can run PHP directly with IIS: http://php.iis.net/

We run several Wikimedia (= php/mysql) sites on our Windows IIS server. Works great.