For many years, the LAMP stack was the king of the world of web development. If you wanted to build a successful, stable and high performance website you would use Linux, Apache, a database (usually MySQL) and PHP/Perl.
Today, that has started to change. An increasing number of websites are being built based on other frameworks such as Ruby on Rails, and one app may use multiple languages – such as PHP, Python, Ruby and JavaScript. Instead of building a “stack” we sit languages next to each other, relying on distributed computing an cloud servers to build a scalable website.
The Tools Are Not Obsolete
The tools themselves are not obsolete. Linux is still the operating system of choice, and Apache is still one of the better servers (although Lighttpd and nginx are becoming increasingly popular). PHP is still a good language, and MySQL, while losing some ground to PostgreSQL, is still a good database choice.
The issue is not with the tools, simply the way we use them. The days of monolithic architectures are ending. Web Developers are working with increasingly complex setups in the cloud, and this requires a new way of thinking.
The Linked Framework
Thanks to Amazon Web Services and other cloud solutions, developers can now install any applications and frameworks they need on a cloud server with just a few mouse clicks. These cloud services are elastic – when you need them, they’re available and will expand to offer as much computing power as necessary. When you don’t need them, the processes are stopped and you are no longer billed – you only pay for what you use.
This system is a boon for developers. It’s fast, inexpensive, and flexible. It may be that the LAMP stack is becoming obsolete not because of a lack of power, but because of a lack of flexibility – why pay for power if you aren’t using it?