DrupalCamp ATL 2010: Not all CMSs are created equal
- 1. Not all CMSs are created equal Andrew M Riley October 2nd, 2010
- 2. "It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail." -Abraham Maslow
- 3. Overall Process 1. Determine needs 2. Evaluate contenders 3. Estimate 4. Profit? (or Implement)
- 4. Needs Identify what type of site you’ll be creating. This decision will affect the following steps. Is it Social? Brochureware? Application Site? Users will be logging in to Just about any CMS out Your application may or your site, doing lots of there can do a basic may not have lots of database writes, will it brochure site. Is the cost of database writes, will it scale? Does the software the software + development scale? Does the CMS license allow you to open your site worth it? allow for modification and up to the public to make This type of site pretty much redistribution? updates? Are there already excludes “Needs” from the made modules that will save process. Are there already created you from re-creating the modules that you can use or wheel? is this from scratch?
- 5. Evaluate (Key Features) • Robust WYSIWYG editor • Content approval • Granular privileges • Advanced caching • Load-balanced environment capable • Multisite support • Multilingual support • Mobile integration
- 6. Interwoven TeamSite Target Market •Enterprise eBusiness •Ultra-large single site Strengths •Best in class personalization support via LiveSite module •Broad functional feature set •Strong integrator and developer communities Weaknesses •Underlying technology platform is 10 years old - recent acquisition casts doubt on likelihood of platform updates •Weak asset management without optional MediaBin module •Content syncing and deployment is a serious area of frustration for developers and administrators
- 7. Day Communique Target Market •Global Enterprise •Global Intranet Strengths •Exceptionally mature, standards-driven technology platform •Flexible deployment capabilities: coupled, decoupled, hybrid •Good internalization support Weaknesses •Company’s engineering emphasis overshadows feature development •Limited partnerships makes experienced third-parties hard to find •Deployment architecture not well suited for smaller-scale deployments
- 8. FatWire Content Server Target Market •Interactive Marketing •Global eBusiness •Microsites Strengths •Focused on the needs of interactive marketers •Strong personalization and content targeting •Deep LDAP integration supports centralized security models Weaknesses •Considered a complex system to roll out and maintain •Multiple contributor interfaces adds complexity and confusion
- 9. SDL Tridion Target Market •Interactive Marketing •Global Enterprise •Microsites Strengths •Best of breed multilingual support •Comprehensive XML support well suited to content reuse •Company is aggressive about developing new features Weaknesses •Emphasis on functional development overshadows need for architectural overhaul •Mediocre UI usability •Weak North American presence yields limited third-party availability
- 10. Open Text (RedDot) Target Market •Interactive Marketing •Ultra-Large Single Site Strengths •Mature, stable codebase •Excellent content versioning and archiving support •Highly usable drag-and-drop workflow designer Weaknesses •Requires proprietary RQL scripting language •Unforgiving platform configurations quickly lead to poor performance •Future in doubt after Vignette’s acquisition
- 11. Drupal Target Market •Community-oriented Sites •Interactive Marketing Strengths •Very feature-rich with thousands of add-on modules •Excellent integration platform •Large developer and user communities Weaknesses •No multi-tier deployment capabilities •Limited post-publish workflows
- 12. Sitecore Target Market •Interactive Marketing •SMB Intranet Strengths •Highly extensible and componentized platform •Pure .NET 3.5 implementation highly intuitive to developers •Best in class UI for features and usability Weaknesses •Current UI is resource intensive •Workflow config is more developer friendly than user friendly •Most support comes from consulting firm partners
- 13. Refresh SR2 Target Market •Enterprise eBusiness •Global Enterprise Strengths •Strongly OO system emphasizes component and content reuse •Strong taxonomy support •Well suited to enterprises with extensive delivery tier investments Weaknesses •No delivery tier integration •Editorial features are awkward and lack usability •Simplistic workflow
- 14. Sitefinity Target Market •Corporate Brochure •Community-oriented Sites Strengths •Shallow learning curve for .NET developers •Comparatively large collection of add-on modules •Frequent functionality upgrades Weaknesses •No multi-tier deployment capabilities •Poor taxonomy support •Potentially serious performance issues with large sites
- 15. CrownPeak Target Market •Corporate Brochure •Microsites •SMB Intranet Strengths •Solid multisite management •Only product with a real API in its class •Vendor works well with consultancies and agencies Weaknesses •No in-context editing •Very limited interactive functionality •Templating via COM/VBScript API
- 16. Editor Features SDL Interwoven Day FatWire Open Text Drupal Sitecore Refresh Sitefinity CrownPeak Tridion Asset Manager Content Scheduling Image Editing In-Context Editing Workflows WYSIWYG Editor Cross- Browser Editing
- 17. Content Features SDL Interwoven Day FatWire Open Text Drupal Sitecore Refresh Sitefinity CrownPeak Tridion Taxonomy Templating Multilingual Support Mobile Integration Content Reuse Personali- zation Theming
- 18. Security Features Interwoven Day FatWire SDL Open Text Drupal Sitecore Refresh Sitefinity CrownPeak Tridion Content Auditing Admin Auditing Captcha Content Approval Email Verification Granular Permissions Login History Error Logging SSL Support Versioning Error Reporting
- 19. Performance Features SDL Interwoven Day FatWire Open Text Drupal Sitecore Refresh Sitefinity CrownPeak Tridion Advanced Caching Load- Balancing Support Multisite Support Multi-tier Deployment
- 20. SEO Features SDL Interwoven Day FatWire Open Text Drupal Sitecore Refresh Sitefinity CrownPeak Tridion Friendly URLs Metadata Management Site Maps URL Aliasing Accessibility
- 21. Standard Functionality SDL Interwoven Day FatWire Open Text Drupal Sitecore Refresh Sitefinity CrownPeak Tridion Blog Calendar File Distribution Graphs / Charts Mail Forms Photo Gallery Polls RSS Site Search UGC Management User Dashboard
- 22. Product Support SDL Interwoven Day FatWire Open Text Drupal Sitecore Refresh Sitefinity CrownPeak Tridion Commercial Support Commercial Training Developer Community Online Documentati on Third Party Developers
- 23. Features vs Complexity Features Complexity Interwoven Day Open Text FatWire SDL Tridion Drupal Sitecore Sitefinity Refresh SR2 CrownPeak
- 24. Technology Basics SDL Interwoven Day FatWire Open Text Drupal Sitecore Refresh Sitefinity CrownPeak Tridion IIS + Web Server TeamSite Tomcat Tomcat IIS Apache IIS JBOSS IIS Hosted Tomcat Windows Operating Windows / Windows / Windows / Windows / Windows + Unix Windows Windows N/A System Unix Unix Unix Unix Windows / Unix COM COM COM / Language Java Java Java + .NET + + .NET + PHP .NET Java .NET SOAP + Java / .NET Java VBScript File Oracle / Oracle / Oracle / Oracle / Oracle / Database MySQL MSSQL MSSQL Internal System MSSQL MSSQL MSSQL MSSQL MSSQL
- 25. Drupal 6 How did it stack up? • Editor Features - Good • Personalization - Good • Security Features - Excellent • Performance Features - Average (Multi-tier deployment and Database support) • SEO Features - Good • Standard Functionality - Excellent • Product Support - Good
- 26. Drupal 7 How will it stack up? • Editor Features - Good • Personalization - Good • Security Features - Excellent • Performance Features - Good (Multi-tier deployment possibly an issue) • SEO Features - Good • Standard Functionality - Excellent • Product Support - Good moving to Excellent
- 27. Estimate General Features - Image/Video Submission Support • Lowest $8,600 moderation*, Promo Code generation and reclamation, multi-step user registration*, Auctions*, Points • Drupal $8,600 system*, Facebook Connect*, Games, Polls*, Twitter • Highest Re-tweet $1,200,000 • SaaS $85,000 • Drupal - 467 hours (89% of Sitecore) • Average • Sitecore - 524 hours $253,000 Need to note what the highest was
- 28. Overall Process 1. Determine needs 2. Evaluate contenders 3. Estimate 4. Profit? (or Implement)
- 29. Things you should know • Truly understand what type of site you need • Never trust vendor sales - test it yourself • Don’t choose a new CMS on the biggest site you’ve ever done • Advise your client if they need to shift their CMS technology - don’t sweep it under the rug • Give your client options* • CMS Watch actually includes Open Source software
- 30. Not all CMSs are created equal Andrew M Riley @andrewmriley