Zend Technologies has announced the general availability of Zend Server 5.0, a major new version of the company’s PHP Web application server. New Code Tracing technology in Zend Server 5.0 enables PHP developers and administrators to slash problem resolution time by up to 50 percent. For the first time, users have visibility into the behavior of their code in production environments, with the ability to pinpoint the root cause of application issues quickly and eliminate the time-consuming, and sometimes near impossible, task of recreating problems in order to resolve them.

Deployed at More than 30,000 Companies Worldwide

"Zend Server 5.0 is a huge step forward for businesses running business-critical PHP Web applications,” said Andi Gutmans, CEO and co-founder at Zend. “With this new version we are delivering application monitoring and diagnostics as part of the base application server at no additional cost. The new Code Tracing technology revolutionizes how businesses can reduce time spent on problem resolution. This and other enhancements will help businesses deliver reliable high-performance applications and maximize end-user satisfaction while reducing development and management time and costs."

Operating Systems

The release supports Windows and Linux; an IBM i version is currently in beta.

Enterprise Grade PHP Web Application Server

Zend Server 5.0 optimizes application performance through multiple PHP caching and acceleration technologies, helps detect and diagnose issues through application monitoring, and provides a complete, tested PHP application stack for Windows and Linux. The product is backed by expert technical support, online updates, hot fixes and security patches. Zend Server is fully integrated with the Zend Studio PHP IDE, and Zend Framework, the most popular open source PHP framework, creating the fastest and easiest solution for developing and deploying reliable and secure Web applications. A free, community edition of Zend Server is also available.

Innovative Code Tracing Technology

Zend Server 5.0 Code Tracing eliminates the need to recreate problems by automatically capturing in real-time the full execution history of an application in a production environment. Now developers can quickly find the root cause of a problem rather than following a lengthy, error-prone process to reproduce it. Code Tracing can be activated manually or automatically when performance degrades or errors are detected through Zend Server application monitoring.

A new Zend Server view, based on Adobe Flex, provides visibility into recorded data, showing a tree of function calls, arguments, errors and duration, as well as statistical information that helps in identifying performance bottlenecks in production.

With Zend Server 5.0, PHP developers can cut troubleshooting time by up to 50 percent and ensure greater application reliability while recouping valuable time for programming tasks, the company says.

“I have saved up to four hours a day of debugging time using Code Tracing in Zend Server 5.0,” says Drew Ewing, a PHP programmer at CyberMark International. “For 99.9 percent of the debug processes that I’m concerned with, Zend Server automatically gathers all of the necessary debug information that I used to gather manually. The countless hours I used to spend debugging transparent actions like jQuery updates, are now freed up to tackle more important programming issues.” CyberMark is an Internet marketing firm that specializes in SEO and PPC programs, social media marketing and website development.

Integrated Job Queue

Zend Server 5.0 Job Queue increases application performance and responsiveness by allowing jobs (PHP scripts) to be performed asynchronously or at recurring intervals, offloading tasks from client initiated Web requests to secondary processing. End users experience snappy responses in their Web browsers while long-running jobs like credit card processing, shipping, and other activities proceed in the background. In addition, maintenance tasks such as database cleanup and RSS feed pulls can be run at specific times or at recurring intervals. The Job Queue feature is fully integrated into the Zend Server monitoring system and Web console, giving developers and other IT staff one place to monitor the overall execution of their applications, including status of jobs.

"Zend Server 5.0 plays a strategic role in helping us ensure a quality online shopping experience for our customers, even during peak traffic times,” says Josh Butts, director of Web development for Offers.com. “Zend Server monitors our application and performs code tracing to tell us when things go wrong and why, so we can quickly address issues as soon as they occur."

Support for PHP 5.3

Zend Server includes support for both PHP 5.2 and PHP 5.3, enabling programmers to take advantage of new language features such as namespaces and closures.

About Zend Technologies

Zend Technologies, Inc., the PHP Company, is the leading provider of products and services for developing, deploying, and managing business-critical PHP applications. PHP runs 35 percent of the world’s Web sites and has quickly become the most popular language for building dynamic Web applications. Deployed at more than 30,000 companies worldwide, the Zend family of products is a comprehensive solution for supporting the entire lifecycle of PHP applications. Zend is headquartered in Cupertino, California.

For more information, please visit http://www.zend.com or call +1 408-253-8800.