If you’re a single PHP developer without your own team, setting up your own environment on a server could not only be costly and timely, but it’s probably something you don’t even like to do. Zend’s Developer Cloud wants you to be able to focus on your code by giving you free tools and an environment that deploys directly to most of the top cloud hosting services. Everything is controlled from a simple web interface.
The service is free, but is invite only right now, with invites trickling out slowly. Go here to request yours. The service comes from the company who makes the Zend Developer Studio.
Zend says this about its Developer Cloud service:
Zend Developer Cloud, as its name suggests, is a cloud-based environment designed to help you code more quickly and more efficiently. It includes a robust PHP stack, advanced debugging capabilities, collaboration tools and much more. Zend Developer Cloud is only a few clicks away and does not require any installation. To make it even better, it’s absolutely free!
The company has posted this video that illustrates how simple it is to get going with the service right away:
Zend was co-founded in 1999 by Andi Gutmans and Zeev Suraski, in hopes to push the PHP language into mainstream usage. The company points out that PHP runs more than one-third of the world’s websites. Zend has raised $44M to date, and is a serious player in cloud services.
Since you can push your code right to services like Amazon’s and Rackspace’s from Zend’s Developer Cloud with absolute simplicity, your apps can be up and running without having to waste time with a server environment at all. The hot buzz space in technology right now has to be the cloud, especially after Apple launched iCloud with iOS5. The idea of storing your data somewhere other than on your own computer is becoming understood by more people than ever.
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