Hi,
In short: IIS is the official Microsoft web server, whilst QVWS is a smaller version of a web server bundled with QlikView. I'm not going to deepen into the differences between IIS and QVWS. You can check the official Microsft documentation for IIS. QVWS is a low functionality web server that will work fine to render Ajax webpages and communicate between the client and the server.
Note that when QlikView is allowed to use port 4747 (so called QVP protocol) the client (Desktop, IE Plugin) connects directly to the Server, there is no need of a webserver between them and performance and speed improves significantly.
But when port 4747 is not available, then QlikView tunnels to port 80 so the client always and only communicates with QVWS and QVS always and only communicates to QVWS. This is a slower connection, though.
All the options available for the QVWS are configurable in the QEMC, System, Setup, QlikView Web Server. The IIS has its own management console (startup button, run, inetmgr.exe).
Roughly speaking, in most cases running QVWS works just fine and you don't need anything else. But there may be cases, specially when you are already serving webpages using IIS, when IIS is preferred. IIS, as a more powerful web server, allows much more customization and security options, because it communicates directly to the Active Directory where all the users and permissions are. IIS integrates completely with Windows, and if your network and systems architecture is based on Windows, it might be a good idea to deploy QlikView reports on IIS instead of QVWS.
It depends completely on you what server to use. As far as I'm concerned, I always prefer to use QVWS, however in some cases due to security restrictions IIS is used instead.
Hope that makes an idea.
Miguel Angel Baeyens
BI Consultant
Comex Grupo Ibérica
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