Zend Does it Again Part 2

From a technical perspective, there isn’t much to say about the WinEnabler—it “just works”. The concept behind it is ingenious and yet simple: the WinEnabler

Server Plugin interfaces directly with IIS on one end and with a specially-compiled version of PHP (with thread safety enabled) on the other. The plugin creates a pool of persistent PHP processes that are never destroyed, so that the performance hit that, under normal CGI conditions,

comes from having to load up and initialize the PHP interpreter only takes place once when the server is started. At the same time, each PHP interpreter is instantiated as a separate process, so that, in the event of a crash, the overall web server’s stability is not affected. Naturally, PHP remains its own good old self—you can add any extensions, accelerators and cache addons

to it just as you would under normal circumstances.

From a business and strategic point of view, however, the introduction of the WinEnabler has far-reaching implications and, therefore, the php|a team unleashed its investigative hounds all the way to our nearest phone to ask Rinat Gersch, Online Marketing Manager at Zend, a few pointed questions on the ins and outs of

this fascinating new product.

Q: Can you explain the business motivation behind

this new product?

WinEnabler was specifically designed in response to demand from enterprises, software vendors and solution providers. These wanted to expand their offerings from Linux to the Windows arena, thereby expanding their potential client pool. Additionally, a viable solution was requested to enable PHP to run on Windows with stability and performance that is up to par with PHP on

Linux/Unix.

WinEnabler supports PHP’s promise of true multi-platform

compatibility by positioning PHP as a viable enterprise-

grade technology for every environment: open

source or proprietary.

Q: What licensing model have you adopted for it?

A simple and straightforward one: one license per machine, regardless of the number of CPUs installed.

Q: What is your target market? Are you after the SME industry, or the enterprise sector?

The target is the PHP on Windows market, whether for small, medium or large enterprises. WinEnabler licensing starts at $195—well within everyone’s budget! WinEnabler is ideal for those who want to enter this market, as well as those already providing PHP solutions

on Windows, but desperately require a PHP-on- Windows solution they can rely on and market to their customers with assurance.

Q: Do you really think that PHP under Windows is a viable platform? Why should developers prefer it to .Net?

Absolutely! There was never a doubt that PHP on Windows has commercial value. The problem was that until Zend’s WinEnabler, there simply was no solution that brought PHP on Windows to be on par with Linux and UNIX in terms of stability and performance. Incidentally, Zend ran a survey during the WinEnabler’s beta cycle, asking users what they thought were the advantages of PHP over other scripting languages. Their answers included:

• ease of use

• quick to learn

• flexibility

• rapid development of code

• continuous development and evolution of

the language

• wide and rich features

• Open source preference

• Linux-compatibility

• lower hosting costs

• cross platform support

• C-like syntax

• DB support and many more.

Q: What would be the motivation, from a strategic perspective, for a decision-maker to choose Windows + PHP to an all-native Windows implementation?

Choosing PHP as a strategic direction helps the customer to preserve the investment in his application.

PHP is an open and portable platform that is available for a large selection of web servers, hardware platforms and operating systems. It provides the decision maker with the ability to choose the Hardware/Web Server/Operating System combination that provides the best Cost/Performance value for his/her application without having to worry about expensive software porting costs when the infrastructure matures up.

Q: How big do you estimate the Windows market for PHP is? Do you think that the Enabler will increase it?

According to Netcraft, 7% of the PHP sites run on Windows. This figure has doubled over the last year,

making PHP the most popular non-Microsoft scripting language used on Windows. We believe that the

WinEnabler will support the natural growth of this trend. As PHP gains in popularity, more Windows users

will recognize its ease, simplicity and robustness. WinEnabler will boost this conversion level because it

allows PHP to run on Windows as reliably as on Linux.

Q: Do you plan to use the Enabler in conjunction with .Net in the future?

PHP in general—and especially PHP 5—provides the user with full capabilities to integrate with Microsoft

.Net and access .Net classes and objects in a very convenient and easy way. At the architecture level, PHP does not use the .Net CLR, and the WinEnabler is no different in this case. We’ve evaluated the possibility of implementing a version of PHP on top of the .Net CLR, but that proved to be impractical because of the dynamic nature of PHP, which is incompatible with the architecture of CLR.

Q: Do you expect the introduction of the Enabler to improve the overall PHP market? In which way?

The introduction of WinEnabler supports and enhances PHP’s promise of multi-platform compatibility.

By improving PHP’s usability on Windows, we expect to see more Windows-based enterprises and SMEs

choosing PHP for their web applications. WinEnabler also supports solutions providers and ISVs

by providing them with the business opportunity to expand their market. The existence of high-quality PHP

applications for the Windows market will be a second driving force in the adoption of PHP in this environment.