Maybe embracing PHP on the Azure platform was inevitable, maybe it was just a smart move. The question is, will interoperability with open source PHP make enough of a difference to matter.

Zend employees, including company founders, are active in PHP open-source efforts, but the company does not have "complete control" over the project, Goldberg said.

Programming languages: C++ overtakes PHP, but JavaScript, Python and Java still rule While the most used programming languages remain stable, there's quite a lot of change elsewhere.