Microsoft has recently published a new web page advertising Windows Server 2008’s native optimisations for running PHP applications. Under the heading of “The greatest love story as yet untold”, it highlights the advantages of running PHP and Microsoft applications on the same server, greatly reducing the overhead for businesses who wish to run both application types while reducing administration costs and overall system complexity.

It also touts the environmental benefits of reducing the number of servers required and therefore the amount of power required to run applications; it also briefly touches on the virtualisation available in Windows Server 2008, again increasing the efficiency of the operation.

Microsoft itself testifies that PHP “didn’t run as good as it should on Windows” in an Information Week article on the subject, and some blogs have claimed that PHP now runs 130% faster on Windows Server 2008.

Microsoft has also announced a new advertising campaigning, claiming that “clients will have already fallen for Windows Server 2008”.