Hybrid Server Architecture for PHP Applications

Full-Stack & Infrastructure / DevOps

The Challenge: A real estate client needed to run a modern WordPress website powered by PHP 8.3 alongside a legacy custom application running on PHP 7.4 housed within a sub-folder of the main domain, requiring both to operate smoothly under a single unified web server configuration.

The Solution: Engineered a hybrid server architecture utilizing Nginx reverse-proxy routing and PHP-FPM socket isolation. Configured separate runtime pools to serve PHP 8.3 for the core WordPress installation while routing sub-folder requests securely to the PHP 7.4 backend environment without cross-contamination or performance degradation.

The Impact: Enabled the client to safely upgrade their main web property to modern PHP standards while preserving business-critical legacy app logic, ensuring zero downtime and seamless visitor navigation.