Enterprise LAMP took a step forward today with the release of ActiveGrid Application Builder and LAMP Application Server 1.0 versions.
The LAMP application stack has long been a favorite of open source developers, and ActiveGrid’s LAMP releases aim to take the open source stack up to the enterprise level to compete with J2EE and .NET.
ActiveGrid Application Builder 1.0 is a rapid application development tool
that enables developers to create applications with rich user interfaces that are easily integrated with other applications and back-ends via the latest XML standards, including XML Schema, BPEL, XForms, XPath and WSDL.
Apache, MySQL and PHP/Python/Perl, the venerable LAMP stack, are
cornerstones of all Linux distributions. With LAMP Application Server 1.0, ActiveGrid claims to have added enterprise-grade features on top of those common open source elements. The features include: process management, session replication, interface rendering, interface caching, a Web services stack, autonomous and inter-node deployment patterns and data caching.
A non-Apache 2.0 licensed commercial version set for release at the end of
the year will include, identity server integration, dynamic data caching and Enterprise Java Beans integration.
“They are really unique types of features that aren’t commoditized in the
industry yet,” ActiveGrid CEO Peter Yared said. Yared claimed that those
features are not yet available on either .NET or J2EE.
According to Yared, companies are now actively considering LAMP as a
platform alternative. “Two years ago when I started this company no one knew what LAMP was,” Yared said. “Now we go into most accounts and they are in the process of evaluating the LAMP stack as an alternative platform to J2EE and .NET .”
Both the ActiveGrid Application Builder and ActiveGrid LAMP Application
Server are available as free downloads and licensed under the open source Apache 2.0 license. They have benefited from community development through the projects at SourceForge.net. Enterprise support and maintenance
for Application builder is available for $300 per developer; $1000 will buy
you support for the LAMP Application Server.