Microsoft Announces Interoperability Improvements for PHP and Microsoft technologies
Last year at ZendCon 2006, I was invited to be a part of the Microsoft and Zend announcement initiating technical collaboration with the PHP community to significantly enhance the reliability and performance of PHP on Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. As part of this collaboration, the IIS product group has delivered a new component for IIS6 and IIS7 called FastCGI Extension which enables IIS to much more effectively host PHP applications.
Today, I am back at ZendCon, invited to be a part of the Keynote presentation to provide an update on the Zend/Microsoft collaboration project and make several new announcements related to improving interoperability of PHP and Microsoft technologies.
First, Zend and Microsoft will continue work on FastCGI and scalable PHP hosting on Windows Servers. Specifically, Zend has committed to redistribute FastCGI in Zend Core, its certified PHP 5 offering. In addition, Zend will ensure that Zend Core fully supports the Server Core installation option for Windows Server 2008, allowing their optimized PHP to be hosted on the most streamlined version of Windows Server ever released.
Second, Zend and Microsoft are a strategic partnership to enable support for Information Cards by PHP developers through a component built for Zend Framework.
Third, Microsoft is announcing the availability this week of the first Community Technology Preview (CTP) of the SQL Server 2005 Driver for PHP. The PHP Driver delivers an API designed to enable reliable, scalable integration with SQL Server for PHP applications deployed on the Windows platform. Microsoft envisions working together with Zend and the PHP Community to ensure that the SQL Server 2005 Driver for PHP is a great offering for PHP developers and part of Zend’s core PHP offering.
Some more details on the announcements:
FASTCGI/IIS
· The next release of Zend Core, Zend’s certified version of PHP 5, will redistribute Microsoft’s FastCGI, ensuring for all of Zend’s Windows customers, that PHP is as reliable and scalable as possible on Windows Servers.
· Zend Core will support the Server Core installation option of Windows Server 2008, allowing Zend’s customers to run PHP on Windows in the most streamlined and secure environment possible.
· FastCGI is available for IIS 5.1/IIS 6.0 as a Go Live release, meaning customers have a free license to deploy this production-quality release on Windows Server 2003 today.
· FastCGI will ship in Windows Server 2008 as a built-in IIS component for the first time, sparing customers the hassle of downloading, installing and patching 3rd party products.
· Microsoft embraces PHP hosting on Windows by building the enabling technology but also by working with the PHP community to ensure that popular PHP applications will run performantly on the Windows platform.
· For more information regarding FastCGI or PHP on Windows, visit http://www.iis.net/php.
SQL SERVER 2005 DRIVER FOR PHP
· On Tuesday, Microsoft is announcing the availibility this week of the first Community Technology Preview (CTP) of the SQL Server 2005 Driver for PHP. As part of Microsoft’s continued commitment to interoperability, the PHP Driver provides an optimized way for developers to leverage SQL Server 2005 in their PHP application.
· With this Driver, we are proud to address the needs of customers who have asked for a Microsoft-supported solution, and bring SQL Server’s scalability to PHP developers.
· The Driver is implemented as a procedural direct extension (also referred to as [])
· Microsoft envisions working together with Zend and the PHP Community to ensure that the SQL Server 2005 Driver for PHP is a great offering for PHP developers and part of Zend’s core PHP offering.
CARDSPACE
· Microsoft Corp. today announced at ZendCon a strategic partnership with Zend Technologies that will ultimately provide people with better control over their personal information on the Web and greatly improve the trustworthiness of Web-based interactions.
· The strategic partnership will enable support for Information Cards by PHP developers through a component built for Zend Framework (Zend’s open source PHP application framework for developing Web applications and Web services).Using this component standalone or as part of the framework, PHP developers will be able to specify a Web site’s security policy and accept information cards from trusted third parties.
· Zend is producing an implementation of the Windows CardSpace authentication mechanism called Zend_Infocard, which will enable Web sites to validate CardSpace authentication tokens submitted to the Web site. Windows CardSpace enables users to provide their digital identities in a familiar, secure and simple way.
For additional information, read the Zend Press Release.