Zend Technologies today released the Zend Framework 1.10, the latest version of its open source PHP web application framework, which includes support for Windows Azure cloud services – a project that was started last year when Microsoft announced the Windows Azure SDK for PHP CTP release and upcoming support in Zend Framework.

Developers can now use the new Zend_Service_WindowsAzure component contributed by Microsoft to the Zend Framework open source project, to easily call Windows Azure APIs from their PHP applications to accelerate web application development and scale up on demand.

Zend_Service_WindowsAzure provides interfaces for all Windows Azure storage services, including Blob Storage, Table Storage and Queue Service. These services enable persistent, redundant storage in the cloud.

Zeev Suraski, the Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder of Zend, believes that the ubiquity, simplicity and flexibility of PHP make it ideal for building cloud applications. “Native Windows Azure support in Zend Framework 1.10 brings the power of Windows Azure to a substantial community of Zend Framework users,” he said in a press statement.

For his part, Jean Paoli, the General Manager for Interoperability at Microsoft, says that Microsoft’s decision to contribute PHP-based Windows Azure components to Zend Framework helps demonstrate the company’s commitment to openness and interoperability by providing greater choice and opportunity for Microsoft customers and partners.

This news also means that PHP developers now have great choice when it comes to writing web applications targeting Windows Azure. As Vijay Rajagopalan, a Principal Architect at Microsoft notes in his blog on the news, besides the Windows Azure SDK included in Zend Framework, there is the Windows Azure SDK for PHP which is already prepackaged in Windows Azure tools for Eclipse and the simpler Simple Cloud API.

All of this is also particularly well aligned with the Windows Azure Interoperability approach, as well as to Microsoft’s overall interoperability effort around PHP.

The Zend Framework 1.10 can be downloaded here.