LAMP not so practical for production shops

When open source started capturing the hearts of businesses years ago, there was a trend to try to do it all with open source. That is how LAMP was born.

What exactly is LAMP? LAMP, which consists of Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP, forms arguably the most popular overall server system on the Web today. The term originated as a marketing word to help point out that open source (free) software, when combined, could be just as effective as expensive 'enterprise solutions' like IBM WebSphere (J2EE) or Microsoft's .NET.

If you want to get the whole LAMP system together instead of downloading the components separately, a good place to start is www.apachefriends.org/en. They offer it all for download, and all free. You will not get Linux, but you get everything else, and it will install easily on most operating systems, including Linux and Windows. Recently, Ubantu expanded on the all open-stack solution. This Linux distributor came out with what they called the Ubuntu Edgy Server Edition.

The server includes the following software:

Using their software, one can even get a LAMP server up and ready to go in about 15 minutes. Sure you need Ubuntu's flavor of Linux, but it actually works well and saves the trouble of installing and integrating each of the four separate LAMP components, a process that can take hours

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and usually requires someone who is skilled in the installation and configuration of the individual applications. You also get increased security, reduced time to install and reduced risk of misconfiguration, translating to a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) for your end customers.

Unfortunately, as a practical matter, most of the world does not use LAMP exclusively for production environments, because only pieces of LAMP may be implemented. This may be because Oracle is more popular and enterprise-ready then MySQL, or, despite the hype, Linux has not yet defeated the beast that is Microsoft. As a result of these mixed-stack solutions, new acronyms were even spawned. WAMP is an acronym that has spawned from LAMP, where Windows actually replaces Linux.

In the continuation of this tip, Ken Milberg will discuss how to deploy mixed-stack solutions in customer shops.

About the author: Kenneth Milberg is a systems consultant with his own independent consulting firm, Unix-Linux Solutions. He has 15 years' worth of experience with Unix and Linux systems, as well as broad technical and functional experience with AIX, HP, SCO, Linux and Solaris. Milberg holds certifications with IBM (IBM Certified Systems Expert -- eServer p5 and pSeries Enterprise Technical Support AIX 5L V5.3 & IBM Certified Specialist –HACMP), SUN (SCNA,SCSA), HP (HP Certified –HP-UX administration) Cisco (CCNA) and Oracle (OCP-DBO).