Written by Zend Technologies

Zend Technologies, Inc., has announced that IBM will ship Zend's solution for PHP in every IBM Smart Business system in order to provide their customers with reliability, performance, and security for PHP-based Web applications. The announcement marks a significant expansion of the IBM and Zend partnership by now including PHP on Linux operating systems and x86 hardware in addition to IBM i OS and Power Systems hardware.

Software vendors participating in IBM's Smart Business market are providing turnkey PHP Web applications and will benefit from the high performance and automatic updates available with Zend's Web application solution, the company said.

Turnkey PHP applications simplify business owner's IT needs. Zend's offering includes PHP in a standardized form that is automatically updated via IBM's integrated support software for applications that are designed for IBM Smart Business systems. This means a business owner's IBM Smart Business system gets a complete, certified PHP stack with automated software updates and security patches. Zend supports the most popular databases, including DB2, as well as broadly used operating systems, including Linux and IBM i.

"Zend plays a key role in IBM's Smart Business strategy to bring the breadth of the vast PHP ecosystem to small and medium businesses. With Zend we're able to provide an integrated, reliable, and high performing business solution that leverages popular PHP applications like CRM, HR management, ERP, supply chain management, and other SMB solutions," said Juhi Jotwani, vice president, IBM Smart Business. "IBM Smart Business is about a radically simple new way to acquire, use and manage IT."

"With the entire IBM Smart Business program now shipping with Zend, a much broader segment of the business community benefits from PHP's reliability, security, and high performance with our web application environment," said Andi Gutmans, chief executive officer at Zend Technologies. "What's really compelling about today's announcement is that ISVs and business owners participating in the IBM Smart Business program can unlock the power of the wide, open market for PHP applications by deploying them on our platform."

Zend has begun working with independent software vendors (ISVs) who are delivering one-stop PHP-based solutions for IBM's Smart Business program, including vendors such as OpenPro, OrangeHRM, WebConcepts, and vTiger. WebConcepts offers a sophisticated retail inventory planning solution to their customers that is built with PHP.

"It only took 4 clicks on the Smart Business system to install everything, the DB2 database, customizations, restore definitions, the application code... everything! All of this took the skills of multiple people in the past and this is now the simplest, most painless experience I have ever had with IT. I never thought I would say that 'IT stuff' was fun, but this is simply amazing," said Ray Young, chief executive officer at WebConcepts, a PHP-based ISV.

"There is truly huge business value to our company as a provider," Young explained. "With Zend on Smart Business, we are able to eliminate almost all on-site cost. These resources can now be deployed on other tasks and our business customers benefit from a much lower cost of deployment."

"The benefits of Smart Market and Smart Business are that they allow WebConcepts to reach businesses and markets that in the past we could not reach with our PHP applications and deliver them quickly and easily, both for us and for our end-customers."

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 is used by more than 20 million web sites and has quickly become the most popular language for building dynamic web applications. Deployed at more than 27,000 companies worldwide, the Zend family of products is a comprehensive platform 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.