One of the biggest benefits of PHP is how easy it is to find servers that run it. The near ubiquity of the LAMP stack among hosting providers does, however, lead to quite a common problem with inappropriate setups.

PHP programmers generally know what a good systems architecture should look like, but it is often a reality of development that they will have little input on the system itself until the last minute. In fact, it's far from uncommon for a developer to be faced with an off-the-shelf dedicated LAMP server, and left up to their own devices.