Amazon Web Services (AWS) has achieved something of a coup by hiring Zend Technologies Ltd. co-founder and PHP scripting language pioneer Andi Gutmans to lead its NoSQL database development efforts.

Gutmans, whose LinkedIn profile describes him as general manager of AWS’ NoSQL Group inside the company’s data services unit, says that he’s now “working on the next-generation of NoSQL database”.

“I will be part of a team with a major focus on delivering real-time responses to enable the next generation of apps and services,” Gutmans wrote in a blog post explaining his reasons for joining AWS. “The challenges are multi-faceted and include: In memory databases, scalability and high availability, different database paradigms… And strengthening developer productivity to support the required time to market.”

Gutmans added that AWS has established a clear leadership position with services like DynamoDB, ElasticCache, RedShift and RDS.

Gutmans shot to fame was way back in 1999, when he and fellow PHP co-pioneer Zeev Suraski teamed up to write the Zend Engine, an open-source scripting language capable of interpreting PHP. The Zend Engine was later integrated with PHP 4.0, while Gutmans and Suraski went on to found Zend Technologies in the same year, a company that offered commercial support and services for those using PHP. Offerings included a framework, server and tools designed for the scripting language.

The timing ended up being perfect for Zend Technologies, as PHP rapidly gained popularity alongside the Perl and Python languages, as part of the LAMP stack with Linux and Apache Server.

Late last year, Zend Technologies was acquired by Rogue Wave Software, Inc., a provider of software tools for the C, C++ and Java programming languages. Gutmans stayed on briefly after the acquisition, serving as executive vice president of Rogue Wave’s strategic partnerships, before leaving to join AWS last March. Suraski has stayed on at Zend as the company’s CTO.

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