FastCGI for IIS 6.0 Officially Released and Supported
This release could not have come at a more exciting time for the technology:
previous beta releases on IIS.NET have had over 17,000 downloads and no less
than six hosting partners have already begun offering PHP hosting on
IIS 6.0 with
the FastCGI Extension. In addition to the downloads, the IIS community
site also has a very active forum of users exchanging ideas and providing
feedback about the FastCGI Extension.
Furthermore, Zend has validated their
Zend Core offering, a certified and
supported version of PHP, on this release of FastCGI and found PHP on Windows
performs comparably to PHP on Linux. Andi Gutmans, Chief Technology Officer of
Zend states, “We have been testing PHP on this FastCGI technology for over a
year and we are very pleased with this official release from Microsoft. There is
finally a PHP solution for Windows that offers a comparable level of stability
and throughput as PHP on Linux.”
With Microsoft’s implementation of the FastCGI open standard, IT Professionals
will be able to host PHP applications on Windows Server® 2003 and IIS 6.0 with
increased reliability, scalability, and security. Customers also know that they
will be able to count on Microsoft to stand by and service the Microsoft FastCGI
Extension. By supporting the open standard, Microsoft has made it possible for
PHP and other CGI compliant languages to be hosted efficiently and effectively
on Windows Server 2003 and IIS.
Looking ahead, betas of Windows Server® 2008 already include the FastCGI
Extension as a completely integrated feature of Internet Information Services
IIS 7.0 (IIS 7.0). The new modular architecture introduced in IIS 7 will provide
additional functionality to PHP applications by enabling them to take advantage
of new managed code services.
These results demonstrate how Microsoft is embracing PHP hosting on Windows. As
a result of these efforts, the PHP community will be able to take advantage of
the increased reliability of PHP on Windows and simplified administration
available on the Windows platform.