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Report Reveals Over 61% of PHP Teams Using Unsupported PHP Versions
February 2023 by Perforce Software
Perforce Software announced the results of their annual survey of the PHP ecosystem, the Zend 2023 PHP Landscape Report.
The annual report, produced by Zend by Perforce, presents industry data and analysis on the key technologies and trends within the PHP development ecosystem. This year, key findings centered on PHP version adoption – with over 61% of those surveyed using at least one end of life PHP version. For companies with more than 100 employees, that number rose to nearly 66%.
“PHP moves fast, and our survey results again show that many teams either don’t have the resources necessary to consistently keep up, or don’t prioritize it,” said Zend Product Manager Matthew Weier O’Phinney. “This leaves them in a precarious position – one that exposes their applications to potentially dangerous vulnerabilities.”
While 68% of respondents did note an upgrade planned within the next 12 months, over half reported committing 25% or less of their development time to maintenance tasks like migrations. Echoing that sentiment, respondents reported building new features as more important than application security.
“It’s clear from this survey data that some PHP teams are forced to make hard decisions when it comes to developing their applications – do they ensure their applications are secure and risk falling behind their competitors? Or do they focus on creating new features and ignore potential exposure to vulnerabilities,” continued Matthew Weier O’Phinney. “Luckily there are options that can help companies do both – like commercial PHP LTS and migration services from Zend.”
The report also looked at trends in PHP containerization and orchestration. Over 57% of respondents reported use of containerization technologies, with over 47% currently using orchestration technologies. The survey data also showed a clear correlation between company size and adoption, with larger companies much more likely to be using containerization and orchestration technologies.
“PHP teams continue to break the mold when it comes to containerization and orchestration adoption,” said Matthew Weier O’Phinney. “While larger organizations in the software application industry are typically slow to adopt these trends, large PHP teams are early and eager adopters.”
As with previous years, Zend used the survey to raise money for a technology-related non-profit. The 2023 survey raised money for Code2040, a non-profit that works to dismantle the structural barriers that prevent the full participation and leadership of Black and Latinx people in the innovation economy.
