Zend Gets Zend Server 6 Into IBM i Servers

At the COMMON 2013 meeting for IBM (News - Alert) technology users, Zend recently announced its latest version of Zend Server tailored for IBM i. Zend Server 6 will present enterprise users with opportunities to manage and create mobile applications from their IBM i systems using a powerful engine composed of back-end software and business logic.

Zend’s co-founder and CEO, Andi Gutmans, said, “This new mobile support provides significant benefits to IBM i clients. Businesses recognize that they must take a mobile-first approach to unlock new business opportunities. Applications must be designed to leverage both the contextual information on a mobile device, and the business logic and data that reside on back-end systems. This requires integration with existing systems, support of multiple mobile device types, and a more rapid and iterative development and deployment approach. Zend is proud to provide a complete end-to-end solution to this challenge.”

Zend Server will run as part of IBM i’s suite of applications. It will allow companies to create vibrant and modern Web environments and mobile apps that can use COBOL, business logic, and databases native to IBM i. This lets clients that use Zend Server skip over the security risks associated with re-inventing the wheel on top of legacy business logic to get their modern apps out there. They’ll be able to make use of their time in other endeavors that would make them more productive developers.

Andrew Borts, the webmaster of United Automobile Insurance Corporation (UAIC), was excited about the concept. He said, “What matters to us is providing state-of-the-art Web processing to the agents that sell our products. Using PHP and Zend Server, we’ve been able to create a wealth of new Web application capabilities for our agency portal that utilize the back-end data from IBM DB2 on the IBM i. We have already implemented apps using RESTful web services in PHP that were deployed very quickly. With Zend Server 6, I am interested in the application deployment capabilities that will make rolling out new versions of our web apps easier, and the mobile functionality that fits right with the sweet spot of developing new mobile applications for our agents.”

Zend Server 6 can also be combined with Zend Studio 10. With this combination, developers can make mobile apps for the big three operating systems: iOS, Android, and Windows Phone (News - Alert). The visual IDE within the Studio will allow developers to make front-ends without much fuss and easily design Web apps with HTML5.