LAMP

Coordinating the Big Names in Open-source brings Exciting Rewards

• Linux, the operating system;
• Apache, the Web server;
• MySQL, the database management system (or database server);
• Perl, PHP, and/or Python, scripting languages.

These technologies appear so frequently together that someone decided to create the word LAMP for what is known as a solution stack. This combination of components provides all the facilities required to make a very reliable, corporate web server applications.

No-one would have believed a few years ago that, in an atmosphere where giant IT companies ruthlessly grab more and more of the market share, that the next generation of software would be absolutely free. One can only marvel at the polarization in ideals in the computer industry...in the red corner, some of the richest companies in the world ruthlessly charging more and more and in the blue corner, hordes of unknown programmers working after hours to put together truly brilliant software.....for nothing.

What is so important about the Web-Application Server Stack?

No-one would argue that this technology may ultimately decide on the winner in the proprietary/open-source war. And recently, several new factors have come into the equation:

• More and more companies are opting for solutions that are less vulnerable to virus attacks.
• The emergence of AJAX as a technology that provides a near-desktop feel without the need to run the software on the home computer (and all the problems with updates, installations, virus and worms etc.).
• The proliferation of broadband Internet connections which means users can now be logged on all the time.
• The emergence of respectable market leaders such as the Venezuelan Government, City of Munich and others who have decreed they will only use open source in the future.
• The emergence of a broad spectrum of opensource service companies that can be profitable and still undercut non-opensource companies. (This moves the market out of the "nerds only" business and into the mainstream.)

What this means is that (i) not only is the web server stack important but (ii) it is going to be more and more crucial in the future as more and more people move to web based applications.

So how widespread is LAMP?

Because open-source software is free, it is difficult to track how many people are using it as there is no financial trail. However, to get an idea, here are two interesting statistics.

In the Web server market, Apache is dominant. According to an October 2005 Netcraft survey, Apache has 70% of the market.

MySQL is fast approaching majority market share among software developers, with 44 per cent using the open source database to meet their needs. Evans found that proprietary database servers are almost twice as likely to have suffered a [security] breach in the last year compared to open source database servers.

What alternatives are there to LAMP?

It is quite possible to set up a solution stack with open-source products that are not listed in the LAMP acronym. For example, the web site you are looking at now uses Linux, Apache, Postgres and Python. I.e. instead of MySQL we are using Postgres, another brilliant open-source database. Also, (probably unfairly) omitted from the LAMP acronym are the products Firefox (regarded by most critics as the best browser on the market) and other UNIX variants like BSD UNIX.

Of course there is also the Microsoft variation known as WIMP (Windows IIS MySQL PHP) or WIMSA (Windows IIS Microsoft SQL Server and ASP).

Is LAMP relevant in the Industrial Segment?

Where systems have to be up and running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, the reduction in vulnerability to virus attacks and the increase in reliability of LAMP make it an attractive proposition for industrial users. Here too, where the speed of data transfer and storage are concerned, LAMP has the edge since developers can tune their systems by tweaking the source code to meet the industrial requirements.

Many end users also firmly maintain that open-source applications like LAMP are the only effective hedge against vendor dependency. (In industrial control systems, once you have chosen a software vendor, you are pretty much at the mercy of their goodwill!)

What is St James Software doing in the LAMP area?

St James is firmly committed to providing our customers with solutions that are LAMP compatible (in addition to our standard Windows solutions.)

1. jLogbook and jHistorian products now also run entirely in the LAMP environment. I.e. the products run in Linux, Apache, MySQL and Python.
2. We also support other open-source applications like Postgres, Firefox, SqlLite and Lucene.
3. Internally, we use Python (what a brilliant language!) exclusively.
4. We are committed to the AJAX methodology which is the basis of our new Version 5 offering.

How does this affect me?

In many cases, your IT department will decide for you what technology your corporation standardizes on so you probably won't have any say in what technology your web server uses. Remember however, that the components of LAMP can be used separately in other environments. If you are at all technically minded, you will enjoy exploring the various LAMP components... in particular MySQL is fast, solid and of course free. Likewise, Python is the kind of language we all wish we could use all the time.

We look forward to hearing any feedback on this subject or any of our other Technical Papers. Please feel free to contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

Click here to view our Price List.