PHP developers should check out the MySQL Conference

Evans Data does client-side research about use of various software technologies. In the past week they published the results from fall 2006 research and issued a press release about the data that will no doubt compete for most ambiguous release of the year. But Stephen Shankland figured it out: developer use of MySQL has risen 25% in the past two years, driven in a significant part by the adoption of the LAMP stack.

“In an increasing number of our ratings categories, we’re seeing open-source databases meeting or exceeding proprietary databases. Evans said MySQL popularity comes in part through its starring role in the ‘LAMP stack’ of software often used in combination — the Linux operating system, the Apache Web server, MySQL database and the PHP scripting language.

The growing relevance of MySQL is also evident at the upcoming MySQL Conference, which will be held in Santa Clara April 23-26. MySQL is expecting about 2,000 attendees at this 3-day conference!

At the conference, Zend’s co-founder Andi Gutmans will do a presentation called “The state of PHP” in which he will highlight the many ways in which the partnership of PHP and MySQL is maturing and ready for business critical deployments. And the Zend Framework project leader Bill Karwin will present MySQL AntiPatterns, ideas on how to mess up your MySQL applications from someone who has seen it all. It should be no surprise that he will also present “Using MySQL with the Zend Framework” - the timing is serendipitous, as we should be hitting Zend Framework 1.0 around this time!

With further presentations by PHP luminaries like Will Fitch, Zak Greant, Mike Ho, Rasmus Lerdorf, George Schlossnagle, Damien Seguy, Laura Thomson and Eli White there is much reason for PHP developers to attend the MySQL Conference.