Some clarification points David.
David Gibbs wrote:
"My point is just this ... PHP is widely used (a lot more widely used
than EGL) and *I SUSPECT* that relatively few pay Zend for support."
-->if less than 1% of 300,000K to 400,000K systems running
i5/OS...OS/400 (Timothy Pricket Morgan's number if memory serves me
correct) is your definition of "relatively few pay Zend" then, yes,
relatively few. However, more people than you think pay for support.
David Gibbs wrote:
"Considering how many companies DO use PHP ... I _think_ that statement
is incorrect. I don't have hard numbers to back my opinion up though."
-->your "opinion" is a fact, David. More facts:
a) Mark Driver, Gartner Research VP Gartner, Dec 2007 "[By 2013]
commercial and corporate IT developers will compose more than 3 million
developers in the community - growing from 13% to 60% of the worldwide
PHP developer population."
b) 50% of the world's top 10 busiest web sites have standardized on PHP
-- ie, PHP is main technology. Rapid development, scalability, and very
low TCO are key reasons for using PHP. #1Yahoo, #3 Youtube,
#7Wikipedia, #8Facebook, #10YahooJapan.
http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?ts_mode=global&lang=none
c) API Group ($1B in revenues): ERP running on System I; use PHP to
front-end entire RPG ERP System. ERP is fairly business critical in my
book. Also, in the June Zend i5/OS Newsletter we highlighted a few
companies from varied industries running PHP in production.
d) Fiat: clearly, the IT Director would state PHP runs business critical
applications in their organization. As a matter of fact in one area
Fiat leveraged Zend Platform instead of a java application server in
order to significantly reduce both development time and TCO. Case
study:
http://www.zend.com/en/resources/case-studies/fiat
Jim Dillard
-----Original Message-----
From: web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of David Gibbs
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2008 11:14 AM
To: Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: [WEB400] [XPOST from WDSCI-L] Webfacing out, EGL in
Joe Pluta wrote:
Not sure what your point is here. I don't consider basic PHP to be a
viable production web application environment
Lots of people think otherwise.
My point is just this ... PHP is widely used (a lot more widely used
than EGL) and *I SUSPECT* that relatively few pay Zend for support.
AFAICT, basic PHP functionality on IBM i is essentially free ... and
will remain so (again, as far as I can tell).
For those IBM i based organizations, who use PHP, and do not need / want
Zend Enterprise can get support for PHP from the community ... like most
other, non i, organizations that use PHP.
I'm less sanguine about the support received from open source
communities. Sometimes it's very good, sometimes not so good. That's
why when I talk about PHP as part of an enterprise environment, I am
not considering an environment where PHP.net is your primary
resource. Once you go down the pure open source route, then why not
Ruby? Or Python? The possibilities are endless!
Yes, and lots of organizations are doing just that.
Some companies may be willing to do that, and I'm not saying it's
wrong. But I'd guess that a lot of companies are unwilling to commit
their mission critical systems to a web-supported open source
development environment.
Considering how many companies DO use PHP ... I _think_ that statement
is incorrect. I don't have hard numbers to back my opinion up though.
And that's where the discussion of Java EE vs. RPG-CGI vs. PHP vs.
EGL comes into play.
When it comes down to it ... EGL is just *ONE* way for an organization
to get an application on the web. It's not the _BEST_ solution, it's
not the _ONLY_ solution (although it is the newest) ... it's just ONE
solution. There are many others. PHP, JSP, Python, Ruby, CGI, .net,
etc. Each have their pluses & minuses. Organizations need to evaluate
their needs, consider their resources, review the tools, and make an
informed decision.
david
midrange.com
