Paul Reinheimer has posted five reasons he thinks that companies should make the switch from LAMP over to WIMP (Windows, IIS, MySQL, PHP).

I'm always looking for better ways to get my job done, save my employer money, and expand my skill set. So whenever I get a chance I'm looking at the competition of the tools we're currently using to see if there's tricks to learn, or reasons to switch. I've been keeping an eye on IIS on various Windows servers for a while, more recently I've been looking at SyBase and SQL Anywhere, as well as CouchDB for data storage (but more on those two later).

He sees these five reasons as possible motivation for your development group (especially if you're already using Windows) to make the switch to this new development structure:

• Use the expertise you already have in-house
• Avoid duplication of Servers
• Avoid duplication of Staff
• Integrate tightly with current technologies
• There's features out there not available on LAMP

A few of these apply no matter what your situation is, especially things like using the knowledge you already have and avoiding duplication wherever possible.