The company, a Microsoft Gold Certified partner, says it has been offering IIS7 since its release in February, and SQL 2008 since it was launched last month. In the press release, Applied Innovations says its "one of the first enterprise hosting providers to offer end-to-end, fully scalable Windows hosting plans powered by the next generation Web technologies from Microsoft."

By way of explanation, the company says that refers specifically to the ability for the company to take a customer of one of its $8 shared hosting accounts and develop that solution, as the customer grows, into a more complex clustered or distributed solution more in line with what one might think of as "enterprise" hosting.

And in an email conversation this week, Applied Innovations pointed out that it's one of just a handful of hosts in its size range (the company hosts 700 servers and about 25,000 domains) or larger that is doing shared hosting on Windows 2008, while most other providers are either staying with Windows 2003 or shifting their focus to VPS and dedicated server hosting, says the company.

The company says in its press release that the new features of IIS7, particularly its improved security features, make the platform more attractive for online businesses.

 "As the Web evolves, so must the services that power these technologies. IIS7 and MS SQL 2008 allow us to stay ahead of fast moving Web innovation, and our new line of IIS7 Web hosting services allow businesses to harness this new technology in a scalable and flexible environment," says the company's CTO Carlos Caneja, quoted in the press release.

On its website, Applied Innovations is prominently advertising the new IIS 7 and SQL 2008 packages at a price of $8.33 per month.