From: Michelle Malfy <mmalfy@beaupre.com>
To: "'cool@lwn.net'" <cool@lwn.net>
Subject: Great Bridge partners with Zend Technologies
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 12:21:32 -0500


Great Bridge partners with Zend Technologies to offer
PostgreSQL-PHP strategy for Web-based business

Open source database experts forge alliance in key programming technology
with leading commercial provider

NORFOLK, VA, and NEW YORK, NY, March 26, 2001 - Great Bridge LLC and Zend
Technologies have joined forces to more fully integrate the PostgreSQL
database and the PHP server-side scripting language, providing Web
developers with the most powerful open-source products available for
building dynamic, database-driven Web sites. The partnership between Great
Bridge, the leading commercial distributor of the PostgreSQL database, and
Zend, an internationally established provider of commercial solutions to
enhance performance and productivity of PHP's installed base, bundles two
scalable, feature-rich applications and offers enterprises a formidable
combination for powering their Web-based applications.
Great Bridge provides expert-level professional services and technical
support for PostgreSQL, the world's most advanced open-source database. Zend
Technologies develops and markets value-added products and services for
enterprise users and developers of PHP technology, and is a major
contributor to the PHP development effort. More than 2.5 million sites
actively support PHP, according to a monthly survey by Internet research
firm Netcraft (http://www.netcraft.com). Corporations that use PHP include
Cisco, AltaVista, Unilever, Maxinvest, AuctionWatch, VillageVoice, BMC,
Lufthansa, PC Magazine Germany and Wall Street Online Germany.
"PHP is a key technology for developing robust Web-based applications for
the enterprise, while the PostgreSQL database management system provides
performance and functionality equivalent to leading proprietary databases,"
said Robert Gilbert, Great Bridge president and CEO. "By providing a high
level of integration between the two, this partnership places powerful
solutions in developers' hands for building e-commerce and other Web-based
applications for business."
The Great Bridge/Zend partnership allows both companies' customers to
benefit from a broader range of products and services. Zend's suite of
value-added PHP products for developers and enterprise-class Web
installations includes the Zend Integrated Development Environment (IDE);
the Zend Cache, which dramatically improves site performance and reduces
hardware requirements; the Zend Encoder Unlimited, which enables businesses
to protect their PHP source code; and customized consulting services. Great
Bridge offers its enhanced, quality-tested version of PostgreSQL, as well as
engineering-level services for developers and production environments,
including developer-to-developer support, consulting services and
professional support contracts ranging up to 24x7x365 for mission-critical
database applications.
"PHP has made substantial inroads into the enterprise; we've seen this
through the demand for Zend products since our successful online launch of
the Zend store this past January," says Zend CEO and President Doron
Gerstel. "We believe that combining Zend's value-added offerings with Great
Bridge's backing of PostgreSQL will provide quality-assured, ready-to-roll
solutions that will enable faster development and time to market."
Future releases of the Great Bridge PostgreSQL database will include a fully
integrated installation of PHP from Zend Technologies, and other key Web
technologies certified by Great Bridge's Quality Assurance Laboratory. Great
Bridge and Zend will also strive to increase collaboration between the open
source PostgreSQL and PHP development projects, as well as integrate other
future product and service offerings.
Zeev Suraski and Andi Gutmans, the co-founders of Zend Technologies, are
members of the eight-member PHP steering group. Zend Technologies developed
the 'kernel' of PHP 4.0, Zend Engine, the component that enables users to
understand and execute the code. The company designed the new modular
structure of PHP 4.0, which makes it highly stable and extensible, and paved
the way for PHP's use as an integral server module in Web servers other than
Apache. Among their other major contributions to PHP is the design and
implementation of PHP to many of the most popular databases, including
PostgreSQL. 
About Great Bridge
Great Bridge LLC provides open source solutions powered by PostgreSQL, the
world's most advanced open source database. Great Bridge delivers
value-added open source software and support services based on PostgreSQL,
empowering e-business builders with an enterprise-class database and tools
at a fraction of the cost of closed, proprietary alternatives.
Headquartered in Norfolk, VA, Great Bridge is a privately held company
funded by Landmark Communications, Inc., the media company that also owns
The Weather Channel, weather.com, and national and international interests
in newspapers, broadcasting, electronic publishing and interactive media.
About Zend Technologies
Zend Technologies, headquartered in Ramat Gan, Israel, develops and markets
Internet infrastructure software. In addition to offering value-added
products and services for Web application development, Zend remains
committed to the advancement and proliferation of PHP as a freeware,
open-source scripting language. In this role, the company offers expertise
and technical backing to the PHP open-source community.
PHP is used to develop dynamic Web pages for e-commerce and other Web
applications. PHP applications run on 40 percent of Web servers running
Apache software, making it the most popular development platform for Apache
servers. PHP is an open-source server-side scripting language (freely
downloadable from php.net and zend.com) that offers a simple, universal
solution for easy-to-program dynamic Web pages - pages that interact with
the user, so that each user visiting the page sees customized information.

# # # 


Michelle M. Malfy
Account Coordinator
Beaupre & Co. Public Relations
A Brodeur Worldwide Partner
603-559-5835
603-559-5885 fax
http://www.beaupre.com
mmalfy@beaupre.com