TechLookz

PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) tools company Zend Technologies is announcing this week that its Zend Core product will run on the Windows Server 2008 platform, providing parity between Windows Server and Linux in running PHP. Zend Core is Zend's certified PHP distribution; version 2.5 is certified for Windows Server 2008. "The certification means that customers who choose to use it on Windows Server 2008 know that it will work as it should," said Andi Gutmans, CTO and co-founder at Zend.

Microsoft and Zend have been collaborating to enable PHP applications to run on Windows. Microsoft has a feature called FastCGI intended to enable PHP to run reliably on Microsoft's platform, said Gutmans. Users also need Microsoft Internet Information Server to run PHP on Windows, he said.

"Now that Zend and Microsoft delivered the technology, we're going to be working with customers on adoption. We're also going to be targeting some of the hosting companies," to entice them to use the product, said Gutmans. All Zend products are to support Windows Server by the end of the year, he said.