Enhancing PHP Performance on Windows and on IIS

Enhancing PHP performance of Windows and Internet Information Services is the main purpose of a technical partnership debuted by Microsoft and Zend some 10 month ago in October 2007. Essentially, the Redmond company aimed to ensure the evolution of hosting PHP on Windows and IIS in terms of speed and reliability. The initial figures presented indicated an excellent gain in performance. According to Microsoft, the difference between PHP running on Windows Server with no enhancements, and after the introduction of the improvements, was between 100% and 150%. Now, the technical collaboration agreement between Microsoft and Zend has now advanced a step with the availability of Go Live Beta of FastCGI Extension for PHP hosting on IIS5.1/IIS6.0.

"Just about one year ago, [we] announced Zend and Microsoft's partnership to enhance PHP performance on Windows Server's IIS web server. This technical collaboration has focused on enhancing the reliability and performance of PHP on Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008. As part of this collaboration, the IIS product group has been working on a new component for IIS6 and IIS7 called FastCGI Extension which will enable IIS to much more effectively host PHP applications. Today, we're excited to announce the release of the Go Live version of Microsoft FastCGI Extension for IIS 5.1/6.0 (FastCGI Extension) as a free download," revealed Jamie Cannon, OSS/Community Manager over at Microsoft.

Although the product is still in beta stage, and neither company indicated a timetable for its finalization, Microsoft considers the extension ready for prime time. Bill Staples, the head of the Web Server engineering teams, stated that the Go Live label is equivalent with a vote of confidence that FastCGI Extension is ready to be integrated in production environments. Additionally, Staples also hinted that the final release may be just around the corner, but as the same time strictly dependent on user feedback.

"All PHP applications that work on Windows today with either the ISAPI or traditional CGI-based PHP hosting should work flawlessly with the new FastCGI Extension. As part of the FastCGI Extension RC0 release, our team has also been doing some basic compatibility testing of some of the most popular PHP applications," Staples added.

Go Live FastCGI Extension for IIS6.0 and IIS5.1 can be downloaded from here.