PHP has seen incredible success as an open source Web scripting language, primarily used for Internet websites. PHP is now installed on over half the Apache Web servers on the Internet, and is the most broadly used Web scripting language, exceeding the usage of both ASP and JSP for creating dynamic Web sites. Even though there are over half a million PHP developers today, PHP’s journey into the Enterprise is in its infancy. And the role that PHP will play in these larger companies will be very different from the role PHP has played on the Internet.
Enterprise IT departments are facing many challenges working and achieving value with the various packaged enterprise software applications they’ve installed over the past years. These include Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, Supply Chain Management (SCM) applications, and others. Millions of dollars are being spent on integration projects, sharing data among enterprise applications in support of ever-changing business processes.
Web Services, Composite Applications and PHP 5
The industry standard for publishing integration-ready data and functionality is Web Services. Web Services provide a standard XML-based approach for exposing and invoking functionality across the network without regard to location, application, platform, or language. Once application functionality is exposed in a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), it can be used as a building block for creating flexible Composite Applications that support changing business processes. A key question still remains: What is the right tool for creating Web Services, and the composite applications that bind them?
PHP version 5 is the answer, with its enhanced support for Web Services, XML and Object Orientation. Let’s look at the reasons why PHP fills this need perfectly:
PHP provides a revolutionary improvement for IT managers and developers who have struggled to address end-user business process requirements with inflexible or complex tools and rigid, inaccessible back-end systems. Using PHP and a Service Oriented Architecture, composite applications can be quickly and flexibly created that draw upon functionality and data where needed from across the Enterprise. IT departments can focus less on the “plumbing” and more on addressing user requirements. Also, with PHP, these applications can easily be updated as end-user requirements change over time.
Zend Technologies: A Partner for Enterprise PHP Success
Zend Technologies is the only company that brings it all together to support the successful use of PHP in the Enterprise. Zend Technologies provides the products, services and knowledge necessary to find PHP developers, train them, make them productive, and deploy the resulting applications in a robust, scalable, and manageable manner.
In creating a solution offering, Zend Technologies is able to leverage a unique level of knowledge about the internals of the PHP runtime environment. Two of the co-founders of Zend Technologies, Zeev Suraski and Andi Gutmans, created the open source Zend Engine, which is the core of PHP where the language is interpreted and executed. Their knowledge underlies Zend products and services and provides Zend customers with a level of insight into PHP unmatched by any other company.
Zend Server, Zend Studio, Training, Certification & Services: Making Enterprise PHP Development More Productive
While PHP is well known as a very easy language to learn, Zend Technologies provides the tools, training, certification and services to make Enterprise PHP development extremely productive quickly. Zend Studio is the most advanced Integrated Development Environment for professional PHP developers. Zend Training gets new PHP developers up-to-speed quickly and introduces new topics to experienced developers. Zend PHP Certification makes it easy to separate the novice PHP developers from the professionals, when you’re looking to staff up quickly. Zend PHP Consulting Services provides design and implementation expertise to get projects implemented, deployed, and delivering value quickly.