What is LAMP?
Submitted by John Locke on Sun, 12/07/2008 - 13:26
LAMP is a general term for a development platform, on top of which developers create custom web applications. The two other major established platforms for web development are Java and Microsoft's .NET.
The acronym LAMP refers to the parts of the platform:
L(inux) - the operating system, on top of which everything runs
A(pache) - the web server, what browsers talk to
M(ysql) - the database, where the data is stored
P(hp/erl/ython or Ruby) - the application language, what the program is written in On top of that stack, you write your application.
You may use a framework (like Ruby on Rails, Django for Python, Zend, Catalyst, and many others) for speedier development and abstracting away the details of underlying system, but you don't have to. With the new cloud-based application framework, you're writing an application specifically on the provider's framework. And that's where the lock-in can happen, because most of the "standard" frameworks do not already implement scaling/provisioning behind the scenes - that's the innovation that these cloud services are doing.
