Web Focus: Ariadne Issue 31

WebWatch:

An Update Of A Survey Of The Numbers of UK University Web Servers

How many Web servers are there in the UK Higher Education community? How has the profile changed during the past two years? Brian Kelly provides some answers.

Background

How many Web servers are there in use within the UK higher education community? What is the profile of server usage within the community - do most institutions take a distributed approach, running many servers, or is a centralised approach more popular? A WebWatch survey was published in June 2000 [1] which aimed to provide answers to these questions. The survey has been repeated recently in order to see if there has been any significant changes.

Using Netcraft's Web-Based Service

Netcraft [2] is a company based in Bath which carries out surveys of Web server software. The Netcraft survey is very comprehensive, with over 36 million sites having been polled. Netcraft publish monthly reports on their surveys [3].

Netcraft also provide an interface which enables details of the Web server used at a site to be obtained. The service also provides a search facility which can be used to list the Web servers used within a domain (or part of a domain). This facility can be used to, for example, list the Web servers which have .microsoft in the domain name.

The Netcraft interface is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Netcraft interface

This service has been used to analyse Web servers used in UK Universities. The results are provided in Appendix 1 of this article.

Why Carry This Survey?

The aim of the initial survey was to profile the server usage within the UK HE community. Knowledge of the server usage within the community has a number of possible benefits: for example, knowledge of server profiles will help developers of robot software.

The survey has been repeated in order to detect interesting trends: are we, for example, seeing a growth in the numbers of servers due to use of personal Web servers and desktop computers? Or are we seeing a reduction in the numbers, due to institutions taking a more centralised approach to use of Web servers?

Caveats

A number of caveats to this survey should be noted:

Web servers which are not publicly available, such as Intranets, will not be reported.
Duplicate names for Web servers may be included in the reports.
The report does not differentiate between real and virtual servers.
The survey is reliant on the quality of the data obtained from Netcraft.

Summary of Findings

The total number of Web servers found on 1 May 2000 was 3,986. Excluding institutions for which Netcraft reported 0 Web servers, an average of 19.4 servers per institution was found. When the survey was repeated on 5 June 2000 the total number of Web servers had reduced to 3,773, with an average of 24.2 servers per institution.

For the most recent survey the total number of Web servers had increased to 4,571, with an average of 28.6 servers per institution.

A histogram of the results is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Histogram of Results

As can be seen, most institutions have a small number of publicly-accessible Web servers, with 73 institutions running between 1 and 9 servers (79 in May 2000) and only 11 running more than 100 (9 in May 2000).

Discussion

There has not been a major change in the profile in the numbers of Web servers used across the community. We have seen a increase, small in many cases, although there have been a number of substantial jumps (e.g. Stirling with a growth from 26 to 87 and Strathclyde from 46 to 110).

After the previous survey was published there was speculation that we would shortly be seeing a substantial jump, as broadband networks became available, which would allow home computers to be "always on", allowing users to run Web servers from home. There was an exception that this change, which would be accompanied by enhanced personal Web server tools, would influence the profile of server usage within institutions (with the accompanying challenges of management, security, etc.) However this change has not happened, and we are still awaiting the widespread deployment of broadband networks.

We also do not appear to be seeing significant changes in institutions moving from a small number of centrally managed servers to a distributed environment or, alternatively, from a distributed environment to a centrally managed one.

References

A Survey Of Numbers of UK University Web Servers, Ariadne issue 24, June 2000
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue24/web-watch/
Netcraft,
http://www.netcraft.com/
Web Server Survey, Netcraft
http://www.netcraft.com/survey/

Appendix 1: Survey Results

The Netcraft service was used to count the number of web servers used by UK Universities. The survey was initially carried out on 1 May 2000 and repeated on 5 June 2000. The data given below was obtained on 11 March 2002.

The following table contains details of the survey. Column 1 gives the name of the institution and a link to the institutional Web server. Column 2 gives the number of Web servers found within the university's domain.

Note the following limitations in the survey:

Domain Name Variants: The survey will not detect unusual domain names variants used within an institution: e.g. a link from www.lse-maths.ac.uk will be included in the numbers of servers in the domain lse.ac.uk.
Short and Link Domain Names: Institutions which make use of a long and short form of their domain name (e.g. www.bham.ac.uk and www.birmingham.ac.uk) will have misleading results.
IP Numbers: Servers which use an IP number rather than a domain name will not be included.
Netcraft Limitations: The database used by the Netcraft service may be incomplete.

**Table 1: Numbers of Web Servers In UK HEIs**
Institution	No. of Servers 1 May 2000	No. of Servers 5 June 2000	No. of Servers 12 March 2002	Current No. of Servers
Aberdeen	26	24	23	Try it
Abertay	7	6	17	Try it
Aberystwyth	8	9	15	Try it
Anglia Polytechnic University	43	41	35	Try it
Aston	22	18	35	Try it
Bangor	19	20	35	Try it
Bath Spa	1	1	2	Try it
Bath	12	9	16	Try it
Belfast, The Queen's University of	28	33	50	Try it
Birkbeck	13	12	10	Try it
Birmingham NOTE: Used <www.bham.ac.uk> and not <www.birmingham.ac.uk>	66	64	122	Try it
Bolton Institute of Higher Education	21	17	20	Try it
Bournemouth University	15	15	22	Try it
Bradford	47	47	39	Try it
Bretton College	1	1	1	Try it
Brighton	33	38	20	Try it
Bristol	54	48	40	Try it
Brunel	13	8	8	Try it
Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College	1	1	1	Try it
Cambridge	338	318	369	Try it
Canterbury Christ Church	1	1	1	Try it
Cardiff NOTE Used <www.cardiff.ac.uk> and not <www.cf.ac.uk> (which has 9 sites)	2	1	2	Try it
Cardiff, University of Wales Institute (UWIC)	5	5	5	Try it
Central England, University of (UCE)	13	12	20	Try it
Central Lancashire	3	2	4	Try it
Central School of Speech and Drama	1	1	1	Try it
Cheltenham and Gloucester College of HE	3	3	5	Try it
Chester College Used `.chester` to avoid confusion with Manchester and Chichester	4	4	2	Try it
Chichester College	2	2	2	Try it
City	37	32	29	Try it
College of Guidance Studies	1	0	1	Try it
Coventry	Not known	27	25	Try it
Cranfield	21	21	20	Try it
Dartington College of Arts	1	1	1	Try it
De Montfort (DMU)	61	57	61	Try it
Derby	3	3	8	Try it
Dundee	32	28	35	Try it
Durham	2	2	1	Try it
East Anglia, University of (UEA)	20	20	28	Try it
East London	10	9	12	Try it
Edge Hill	5	5	5	Try it
Edinburgh Used `.ed.ac.uk` to differentiate from Bized and RCSED	265	259	243	Try it
Essex	31	30	25	Try it
Exeter Used `.ex.ac.uk` to differentiate from essex	1	12	14	Try it
Falmouth	1	1	2	Try it
Glamorgan	14	13	8	Try it
Glasgow Caledonian University	22	22	29	Try it
Glasgow School of Art	2	2	3	Try it
Glasgow	182	174	186	Try it
Goldsmiths College NOTE <www.goldsmiths.ac.uk> and not <www.gold.ac.uk> (which has 17 sites)	5	4	3	Try it
Greenwich	15	13	21	Try it
Harper Adams	1	1	1	Try it
Heriot-Watt	35	33	33	Try it
Hertfordshire	25	23	15	Try it
Huddersfield	3	2	8	Try it
Hull	43	42	42	Try it
Imperial Used .ic.ac.uk and not ic.ac.uk to avoid confusion with uwic.ac.uk in March 2002 survey	155	146	189	Try it
Institute of Education	4	5	5	Try it
Keele	10	10	11	Try it
Kent	15	15	21	Try it
Kent Institute of Art and Design	2	1	1	Try it
King Alfred's College, Winchester	5	4	4	Try it
King's College London (KCL)	33	32	35	Try it
Kingston	3	3	5	Try it
Lampeter	2	2	3	Try it
Lancaster Note initially used lancaster.ac.uk and not .lancs.ac.uk	3	2	1 40	Try it (Lancaster) Try it (Lancs)
Leeds	106	101	132	Try it
Leeds Metropolitan University (LMU)	3	2	5	Try it
Leicester Used `.le.ac.uk` to differentiate from Newcastle, Bournville, Skelmersdale, Isle and Keele	16	16	18	Try it
Lincolnshire and Humberside	2	1	1	Try it
Liverpool	22	23	39	Try it
Liverpool John Moore	17	15	18	Try it
Liverpool Hope	1	1	1	Try it
London Business School	7	5	1	Try it
London Guildhall	1	1	3	Try it
London Institute	8	6	8	Try it
University of London (Institutes)	6	6	7	Try it
London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)	19	16	23	Try it
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine	3	3	3	Try it
Loughborough Note <www.lboro.ac.uk> and not <www.lut.ac.uk>	24	22	48	Try it
Luton	6	8	11	Try it
Manchester Institute of Science & Technology (UMIST)	66	59	66	Try it
Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU)	43	41	35	Try it
Manchester	152	142	159	Try it
Manchester Business School	1	1	1	Try it
Medicine, University of Wales College of	2	2	4	Try it
Middlesex	46	38	46	Try it
Napier	33	32	29	Try it
Newcastle	49	41	65	Try it
Newman	3	3	2	Try it
Newport	5	5	5	Try it
North-East Wales Institute of Higher Education (NEWI)	2	2	6	Try it
North London (UNL)	8	8	10	Try it
North Riding College Higher Education Corporation	1	1	1	Try it
Northampton, University College	1	1	1	Try it
Northern College of Education	10	10	13	Try it
Northern School of Contemporary Dance	1	1	1	Try it
University of Northumbria at Newcastle (UNN)	13	14	19	Try it
Norwich School of Art and Design	1	1	1	Try it
Nottingham Trent	28	22	37	Try it
Nottingham	28	27	43	Try it
Oxford	247	235	333	Try it
Oxford Brookes	0	0	4	Try it
Paisley	15	2	15	Try it
Plymouth	31	28	14	Try it
Portsmouth Used `.port.ac.uk` to differentiate from Newport	32	31	34	Try it
Queen Margaret University College	1	1	2	Try it
Queen Mary and Westfield College	69	62	7	Try it
Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication	1	1	1	Try it
Reading	89	89	78	Try it
Ripon and York St John, College of	2	2	1	Try it
Robert Gordon University	6	4	6	Try it
Roehampton	3	2	3	Try it
Rose Bruford College	1	1	1	Try it
Royal Academy of Music	1	1	1	Try it
Royal College of Art	16	13	16	Try it
Royal College of Music	1	1	3	Try it
Royal Holloway	42	41	30	Try it
Royal Northern College of Music	4	4	3	Try it
Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama	2	2	0	Try it
Royal Veterinary College	1	1	1	Try it
St Andrews	37	38	52	Try it
St George's Hospital Medical School	8	5	14	Try it
St Mark and St John, College of	3	3	2	Try it
St Mary's College	1	1	1	Try it
Salford	31	31	35	Try it
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)	1	1	3	Try it
Scottish Agricultural College	3	3	4	Try it
Sheffield Hallam University	15	16	11	Try it
Sheffield	28	25	32	Try it
South Bank University	19	18	39	Try it
Southampton	160	162	185	Try it
Southampton Institute	3	2	4	Try it
Staffordshire	5	5	11	Try it
Stirling	30	26	87 **	Try it
Strathclyde	49	46	110 **	Try it
Sunderland	22	19	32	Try it
Surrey Institute of Art and Design	2	3	3	Try it
Surrey	23	21	30	Try it
Sussex	15	16	16	Try it
Swansea Institute of Higher Education	1	1	1	Try it
Swansea	30	26	32	Try it
Teeside	13	13	10	Try it
Thames Valley	15	15	18	Try it
Trinity and All Saints	1	1	1	Try it
Trinity College of Music	1	1	1	Try it
Trinity College, Carmarthen	1	1	2	Try it
Ulster	25	3	29	Try it
University College London	117	110	117	Try it
Warwick	41	40	55	Try it
Welsh College of Music and Drama	1	1	1	Try it
West of England, University of (UWE)	14	11	21	Try it
Westhill College	1	1	1	Try it
Westminster	7	7	7	Try it
Wolverhampton	67	63	65	Try it
Worcester, University College	0	0	1	Try it
Writtle College	1	1	1	Try it
Wye College	0	0	1	Try it
York	26	22	36	Try it
Total	3,985	3,773	4,878

Note: One institution was reported as having no Web servers (Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama). This is believed to be due to an error in the data collection.; The data for the initial survey of Coventry University was lost.; The initial surveys of Lancaster Universities used the domain name .lancaster.ac.uk. This survey also provides findings for .lancs.ac.uk.

Table 2 gives a summary of the top 5 web sites with the largest number of web servers as reported by Netcraft.

**Table 2: Top 5 UK HEI Web Sites With The Most Number of Web Servers**
Institution	No. of Web Servers (1 May 2000)	No. of Web Servers (5 June 2000)	No. of Web Servers (12 March 2002)	Current Value
Cambridge	338	318	369	Try it
Oxford	247	235	333	Try it
Edinburgh	248	244	243	Try it
Imperial	155	149	189	Try it
Glasgow	182	174	186	Try it

Author Details

Picture of Brian Kelly Brian Kelly
UK Web Focus
UKOLN
University of Bath
Bath
BA2 7AY

Email: b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk

Brian Kelly is UK Web Focus. He works for UKOLN, which is based at the University of Bath

Ariadne is published every three months by UKOLN. UKOLN is funded by Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives & Libraries (the organisation succeeding the Library and Information Commission), the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Higher Education Funding Councils, as well as by project funding from the JISC and the European Union. UKOLN also receives support from the University of Bath where it is based. Text on this page is copyright Ariadne/original authors.