PHP: Past, Present and Future

I just published a research note on PHP. Clients can find it here.The research note goes into *much* more detail but the overview is below.

Keep in mind that this content is targetted at mainstream IT organizations.

PHP has been a cornerstone technology on the Web for more than a decade. While its adoption among mainstream IT organizations has been limited in the past, many corporate application development (AD) projects are discovering the unique benefits of PHP.

KEY FINDINGS

The PHP worldwide developer count will grow to as high as 5 million developers by 2013, up from 3 million in 2007 and 4 million in 2009.In the short term, PHP will remain a widely adopted Web development technology.

Over the long term, PHP will encounter increased competition from technologies such as Microsoft ASP.NET, Java, Python, Ruby, etc.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Consider PHP for projects that require a combination open and nonproprietary technology, on which to build architecturally basic (but not necessarily small) dynamic Web applications.

Consider PHP as a supporting technology in a broader portfolio of AD technologies, where it can provide a specialized toolset for building Web graphical user interface (GUI) front ends to service-oriented architecture (SOA) back-end services.

Consider adopting and customizing industry-proven Web solutions (e.g., Drupal, MediaWiki, etc.) built on PHP before building solutions from scratch.

Source:blogs.gartner.com