Zend Technologies has released Zend Server 5.6 for IBM i for modernizing business-critical applications, leveraging business logic stored in databases, and creating web-based applications using PHP on the IBM i platform. Zend Server 5.6 for IBM i helps streamline and standardize the deployment process, accelerate delivery of modern web applications, and support application availability with rollback and recovery. This version also includes the new XML Toolkit.

New features include:

• The ability for development teams to deliver fully packaged, ready-to-run applications to operations teams with predefined settings and parameters.
• Proactive monitoring for realtime visibility into bottlenecks and errors in development and production environments.
• The ability to roll back and recover from code or deployment errors or outages.
• Web APIs that automate the provisioning, configuring, and deployment of applications.
• Enablement of Continuous Integration processes for agile deployment.
• A new XML Toolkit that is based on standard technologies such as DB2, RPG, XML, and PHP and takes advantage of IBM i mechanisms such as standard DB2 connections, stored procedures, and RPG ILE. Fully PHP-based client-side code provides compatibility with any platform that can connect to DB2 on IBM i. (The Easycom Toolkit is no longer included with Zend Server for IBM i. A built-in compatibility wrapper (in beta) assists with migration to the XML Toolkit.

IBM delivers Zend Server Community Edition for IBM i with every IBM i shipment. Other editions also are available for purchase.

You can learn more about the features in Zend Server for IBM i 5.6 during a webinar at noon eastern on Thursday, Jan. 26. Services, classes, and training in PHP also are available from Zend.