Zend Server 7 is here. This application platform for mobile and web apps includes the "all-new" (and no doubt shiny) Z-Ray, a piece of technology designed to give in-context visibility inside apps by showing in real time exactly what happens to construct each page.
"It helps developers write better code, detect and fix issues earlier, and collaborate with operations staff to resolve production problems faster," says the firm.
The concept here is that software teams get platform consistency across development, test, and operations, as well as automation of the release process, all of which remove inconsistencies and (in theory) improve quality and speed.
Zend CTO Zeev Suraski says that with Z-Ray, developers can immediately understand the impact of their code changes, enabling them to both improve quality and solve issues long before their code reaches production.
"In addition to the obvious benefits of this 'Left Shifting' — better performance, fewer production issues, and faster recovery times — using Z-Ray is also downright fun," he said.
The Zend Server platform implements a Continuous Delivery approach to developing PHP applications. The platform works with Continuous Integration platforms such as Jenkins and Configuration Management tools from Ansible, Chef, Puppet, and VMware, while automating all processes at the PHP application layer, including dependency management, packaging, configuration, deploy/rollback, scaling, and monitoring.
Zend Server 7 is available in three versions for operations and two versions for development.