Articles - Page 145

The Top 10 AI Tools for Small Business: From Automation to a Coordinated Team of AI Agents

matt-garrepy

SiteSupra Review

mike-johnston

Wix has just announced their latest vertical solution; <a href="http://www.wix.com/music/home" target="_blank">WixMusic</a>.
Still technically in beta, WixMusic has been designed to help musicians and vocal artists of all types sell their content. WixMusic includes an advanced music player, commission free sales, an easy to use management system, tracking and metrics, and a range of specifically designed music website templates.
Recently, Wix was made the winner of the <a href="/the-winner-of-the-2014-peoples-choice-cms-award-for-best-website-builder/" target="_blank">People's Choice CMS Award for Best Website Builder 2014</a>. The platform was also chosen to be covered in detail over at <a href="http://websitebuilderscritic.com/" target="_blank">Website Builders Critic</a>.
Here's a video introducing WixMusic.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0hvm9pEQ4VQ?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<h2>A Complete &amp; Commission-free Solution</h2>
Wix are aiming to empower users to professionally promote their music and audio content directly from their Wix websites. Optimized for mobile devices, WixMusic ensures music sharing and purchasing can continue on the go.
As with its previous vertical solution, WixHotels, WixMusic is a freemium solution, soon to be on offer to all Wix users.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wixmusic.jpg" />
Avishai Abrahami, the Co-Founder and CEO of Wix, made these comments upon the announcement:
<blockquote>“WixMusic is the latest verticalized solution added to the Wix platform, further executing our goal to provide comprehensive ways for anyone, including musicians, to build, manage and grow a business or brand online.
Musicians want to focus on their music, not code websites, or piece together the tools they need. That’s why we created a complete and commission-free solution, letting this unique professional audience create an online presence that encapsulates their sound.”</blockquote>
Check out the <a href="http://www.wix.com/music/home" target="_blank">Wix website</a> for more information about WixMusic.
And of course, be sure to swing by <a href="/products/wix/" target="_blank">Wix via our CMS Directory</a> to explore more of their platform.

Wix Announces WixMusic

<img alt="sshot-5" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-5.png" />
<a href="https://www.acquia.com">Acquia</a>, the Drupal digital experience company trusted by the BBC and Australian government, has announced the launch of <a href="https://www.acquia.com/products-services/acquia-lightning">Acquia Lightning</a>, a free and open source distribution of Drupal that accelerates Drupal 8 development and makes it easy for non-technical users to manage experiences.
The Acquia Lightning distribution is available on <a href="https://www.acquia.com/free">Acquia Cloud Free</a>, where developers can start building with Drupal 8 today. It makes it easy for organizations to get started fast with Drupal 8, shaving weeks or months off development projects.
Jill Moraca, manager of Web Development Services in the Office of Information Technology at <a href="http://ctt.marketwire.com/?release=1269213&amp;id=8995573&amp;type=1&amp;url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.princeton.edu%2f">Princeton University</a>, which participated in the beta trial of Acquia Lightning.
<blockquote>
“Lightning solves problems that would otherwise slow the development of content-rich websites on Drupal.
I like that we can now focus less on overcoming technology hurdles and more on client needs. Using Lightning makes getting started on new web development projects faster and easier. Our developers and content creators are excited about the future of Lightning.”
</blockquote>
<h2>Up to 20% Faster</h2>
Acquia Lightning is built to bring about enterprise-scale delivery of digital experiences.
Lightning helps organizations quickly build and customize four key components of digital experience delivery that all marketing and editorial teams require:
<ul>
<li>Drag-and-drop Layout: Create flexible, responsive layouts so everyone can be a site builder and create pages and experiences without developer intervention</li>
<li>Media Management: Create, upload, embed, and manage social media and digital assets</li>
<li>Content Workflow: Configure content workflows to streamline review and ensure editorial quality and add governance and control for publishing</li>
<li>Experience Preview: Conduct a comprehensive review before publishing content, campaigns, and cross-channel experiences</li>
</ul>
Chris Stone, chief product officer at Acquia, is hopeful that Lightning will help brands to deliver their digital experiences at a faster rate:
<blockquote>
“With Lightning, Acquia has done the work of providing a tightly integrated distribution that conforms to security best practices, enabling organizations to move faster in developing new applications on Drupal 8.
Developers can create powerful, easy-to-use publishing tools for their editorial and content teams, with drag and drop layouts, media management, configurable workflows and preview capabilities that make digital experience delivery come together. Hundreds of sites are already using Acquia Lightning, and we estimate Lightning removes 20 percent of the time required for every new Drupal 8 development project.”
</blockquote>
<h2>Get Started With Acquia Lightning For Free</h2>
Lightning is available on the <a href="http://ctt.marketwire.com/?release=1269213&amp;id=8995603&amp;type=1&amp;url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.acquia.com%2ffree">Acquia Cloud Free</a> plan so you can get started today. Acquia Lightning is also available for download from <a href="http://ctt.marketwire.com/?release=1269213&amp;id=8995606&amp;type=1&amp;url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.drupal.org%2fproject%2flightning">Drupal.org</a>, <a href="http://ctt.marketwire.com/?release=1269213&amp;id=8995609&amp;type=1&amp;url=https%3a%2f%2fgithub.com%2facquia%2flightning">GitHub</a>, or as part of a <a href="http://ctt.marketwire.com/?release=1269213&amp;id=8995612&amp;type=1&amp;url=https%3a%2f%2fgithub.com%2facquia%2flightning-project">Composer-based installer</a>.
There is also a recorded webinar available entitled, “<a href="http://ctt.marketwire.com/?release=1269213&amp;id=8995591&amp;type=1&amp;url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.acquia.com%2fresources%2fwebinars%2flightning-distribution-drupal-build-advanced-authoring-experiences-drupal-8">Lightning Distribution for Drupal</a>,” co-presented by Acquia's <a href="http://ctt.marketwire.com/?release=1269213&amp;id=8995594&amp;type=1&amp;url=https%3a%2f%2fdev.acquia.com%2fauthor%2fjohn-kennedy">John Kennedy</a> and <a href="http://ctt.marketwire.com/?release=1269213&amp;id=8995597&amp;type=1&amp;url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.drupal.org%2fu%2fbalsama">Adam Balsam</a>.
The press release for this story can be <a href="http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/acquia-releases-lightning-drupal-8-enabling-fast-starts-digital-experience-deployments-2143545.htm">found here</a>.

Up to 20% Faster: Acquia Lightning Speeds Up Drupal 8 Development Cycles

The budding cloud-hosted eCommerce solution LemonStand has just introduced a handy one-page checkout system.
This news comes after <a href="https://www.lemonstandapp.com/">LemonStand</a>'s recent unveiling of content blocks, improving the platform's flexibility when it comes to design.
LemonStand's new checkout page is available in five new themes; Slate, Tanto, Hype, Mker, and Coffree, all of which are now available to all LemonStand customers.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/1-page-checkout-black_1700x0.jpg" />
<h2>One Page, Three Sections</h2>
The benefits of a one-page checkout will be known to most online merchants. It makes the shopping process easier for customers and streamlines the payment process — which is often the most drawn-out part.
LemonStand claims to have taken the following steps with this update:
<ul>
<li>Instead of presenting all the information on the page at once, we’ve broken it up into 3 easy sections. Customers can easily progress through each section, and nothing feels overwhelming.</li>
<li>The shipping address mirrors the billing if the checkbox is selected (it is by default).</li>
<li>Your customers can use their web browser’s back button, and it will take them through the steps (even though they are all on 1 page).</li>
<li>A payment method and shipping method are selected by default to reduce the needed clicks.</li>
</ul>
Also, as far as responsive design goes, LemonStand says that they, “paid attention to details, such as invoking the number keypad when the credit card number field is active for mobile devices.”
<h2>Customization &amp; A/B Testing</h2>
LemonStand enables users to customize each of the five themes related to its one-page checkout.
Users can fully customize the CSS to change the design, and there are also some basic options that you can customize right through the editor, some of which are unique to each theme.
LemonStand has encouraged their user base to take advantage of these customization options to not only tweak the design of their checkout pages, but to also implement A/B testing for better conversions. Some wise advice for sure!
Visit the LemonStand blog to find out more about their new checkout system, and <a href="https://www.lemonstandapp.com/" target="_blank">check out their website</a> to start your online store today.

LemonStand Introduces One-page Checkout

<a href="http://www.dotcms.com/" target="_blank">DotCMS</a>, the popular Java, open-source, content management system, has released its latest version.
This update brings about pages-as-content, enhanced workflows, and more. <a href="/dotcms-3.0-brings-in-enhancements-tailored-for-java-web-developers/" target="_blank">DotCMS 3.0 was released</a> in early December 2014.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dotcms-3-1-release.png" />
<h2>“More Power &amp; Creativity”</h2>
DotCMS' new “Pages-as-Content” feature allows you to extend DotCMS content concepts to pages, including; custom Page types, different versions for different language and the ability to create custom attributes per HTML page.
Pages are also able to be used in queries and searchable like other content types in the dotCMS Authoring Environment. Also added with this feature is the ability for pages to have any extension i.e., .html, .json, .dot, or even have no extension at all.
Since DotCMS' Pages are now handled as content, Custom Workflows can work with HTML Pages and you can include “whole pages” in a workflow. This capability will help user experience designers use dotCMS custom workflows more effectively and efficiently, with less code.
Furthermore, by popular demand, Pages can now be added to the root of a website (host), whereas previous versions would allow files only.
DotCMS has also made some improvements to their Elastic search system and now supports UTF-8 encoding in URLs.
The company has said that DotCMS 3.1 will, “bring more power and creativity in delivering dynamic, content-driven user experiences across devices and platforms.”
For all the details on DotCMS 3.1, <a href="http://dotcms.com/blog/post/fresh-release-dotcms-3-1" target="_blank">check out their official blog announcement</a>.
And of course, you can explore more of <a href="/products/dotcms/" target="_blank">DotCMS via our CMS Directory</a>.

DotCMS 3.1 Released

The popular website builder <a href="https://www.jimdo.com/" target="_blank">Jimdo</a> has made enhancements to its photo galleries, rolling out three new display options.
Founded in 2004 under the name “NorthClick”, Jimdo has become one of the most trusted website builders around.
Here's what Jimdo photographers, bloggers, and all other picture fiends can now enjoy.
<h2>Horizontal View</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/comparison_horizontal-view_21079x0.png" />
Jimdo's new Horizontal view has a more modern, dynamic feel to it. All your photos will fit seamlessly together with their original proportios.
So, no more cropping those beauties into squares.
<h2>Vertical View</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/jimdo_vertical_view700x0.png" />
With Vertical view, your photos will flow down the page.
You choose how many columns of photos you want displayed side by side, from one to six. Choose one column, and your photos will display across the full width of your content area — perfect for showing off large images.
If you choose more columns, your photos will display at smaller sizes, in columns side by side.
<h2>Slider View</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/new_jimdo_slider700x0.png" />
Jimdo's previous slideshow option has been trumped. The new Slider view is faster, prettier, and best of all <a href="http://thenextweb.com/dd/2014/04/19/rip-flash-html5-will-take-video-web-year/" target="_blank">no longer uses Flash</a>.
To find out more about Jimdo's new photo galleries, <a href="http://blog.jimdo.com/new-jimdo-photo-galleries-for-beautiful-portfolios-blogs/" target="_blank">check out their blog announcement</a>.
Plus, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/jimdo/" target="_blank">Jimdo via our CMS Directory</a>.

Jimdo Rolls Out New Galleries

<img alt="sshot-1" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-1.png" />The world's largest event for the <a href="http://typo3.org/">TYPO3 </a>community is set to take place on October 26-27 2016 in Munich, Germany.
The TYPO3 Association has been promoting the development of free software projects that have arisen from the TYPO3 community for ten years.
“Make Innovation Happen” is the conference motto, with a Business Day and Future Day day planned to reign in IT decision makers, agencies, marketing managers, developers, designers, and editors.
Throughout the conference, TYPO3 will be focusing on communicating the potential of TYPO3 as a platform, content management, and the web in general. The whole program will be rounded off by a two-day Expo that the products and innovations will be presented at.
<h2>TYPO3 Awards &amp; A Call for Speakers</h2>
Like last year's event, TYPO3 awards will be presented once again at #T3CON16.
A panel of judges will select the best TYPO3 websites from various industries, and the award ceremony will take place as a separate gala event on October 27 at Löwenbräukeller in Munich, Germany, and is also open to visitors who do not have tickets to the main conference.
Here's how the<a href="https://award.typo3.org/" target="_blank"> TYPO3 awards went down back in 2015</a>.
Furthermore, there are still a few months to go before the event takes place, which means that speakers are still being accepted.
If you want to present at T3CON16, <a href="http://t3con.eu/speakers/become-speaker/">you can apply here</a>.
<h2>Tickets</h2>
Ticket sales for the T3CON16 at the Hilton Munich Park am Tucherpark have already begun. Tickets can be <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/t3con16-tickets-21295778246">purchased here</a>.
Discounted “Early Bird Tickets” are available up until June 7, 2016. “Bring Your Friend” tickets are also still available.
To learn more about T3CON16, check out the <a href="https://typo3.org/news/article/typo3-conference-t3con16-october-26-27-in-munich-call-for-speakers-and-papers/">official announcement</a>, as well as the <a href="http://t3con.eu/">official website</a>.

#T3CON16: TYPO3 European Conference Set for October 26-27th

This week, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-and-the-art-of-the-possible-interview-with-chief-market-officer-jennifer-griffin-smith/">Acquia</a> announced that its open digital experience platform, Acquia DXP, has been positioned by <a href="https://aragonresearch.com/" target="_blank">Aragon Research</a>, Inc. as a Leader in The Aragon Research Globe™ for Content Experience Platforms (CXP), 2023.
Aragon Research analysts evaluated 17 providers of content experience platforms. These platforms enable enterprises to shift web experiences to intelligent, dynamic journeys that can be delivered on any device and to personalize them with tools such as <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/from-chatbots-to-contentops-how-ai-is-coming-to-your-cms-whether-you-like-it-or-not/">generative AI</a> and chat.
Providers were ranked based on strategy, performance, and reach. 
“We believe being positioned as a Leader in The Aragon Research Globe for Content Experience Platform, 2023 highlights the strength of our capabilities in areas such as AI, low-code development, and support for experiences across all digital channels,” said <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-and-the-art-of-the-possible-interview-with-chief-market-officer-jennifer-griffin-smith/">Jennifer Griffin Smith</a>, Chief Market Officer at Acquia. “By endeavoring to provide the industry’s most open DXP, we enable marketers to leverage all of their content and customer data to create high-impact experiences — faster, more cost-effectively, and while maintaining brand consistency.” 
To access the full report, <a href="https://aragonresearch.com/globe-for-content-experience-platforms-2023/" target="_blank">click here</a>.
<h2>About Acquia</h2>
Acquia empowers the world’s most ambitious brands to create digital customer experiences that matter. With open source Drupal at its core, the Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) enables marketers, developers, and IT operations teams at thousands of global organizations to rapidly compose and deploy digital products and services that leverage their content and data assets to engage customers personally and at scale, enhance conversions, and help businesses stand out. Learn more at <a href="https://www.acquia.com/">https://acquia.com</a>.
<h2>About Aragon Research</h2>
Aragon Research is an independent research and advisory firm that provides business and IT executives with the actionable insights they need to navigate technology's ever-evolving impact on business. Headquartered in Morgan Hill, CA, Aragon Research works with executives at every major level of the business and across industries to give them the tools they need to make more informed technology and strategy decisions. Aragon delivers high-impact advisory, research, and consulting services, and has a proven team of veteran analysts. For more information, visit <a href="https://aragonresearch.com/" target="_blank">www.aragonresearch.com</a>.
Aragon Research does not endorse vendors, or their products or services that are referenced in its research publications, and does not advise users to select those vendors that are rated the highest. Aragon Research publications consist of the opinions of Aragon Research and Advisory Services organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Aragon Research provides its research publications and the information contained in them "AS IS," without warranty of any kind.
“The Aragon Research Globe™ for Content Experience Platforms, 2023” by Jim Lundy, July 2023. © 2023 Aragon Research, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.

Acquia Positioned as a Leader in The Aragon Research Globe for Content Experience Platforms (CXP), 2023

cms-critic-staff

Call Tracking + AI 

Call Tracking + AI that Turns Calls into Leads

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<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/shock-and-awe-adobe-to-acquire-ui-design-platform-figma-for-20-billion/">Adobe</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-and-the-art-of-the-possible-interview-with-chief-market-officer-jennifer-griffin-smith/">Acquia</a>, and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/optimizely-integrates-b2b-commerce-cloud-and-content-cloud-combines-headless-commerce-with-cms/">Optimizely</a> are Leaders in the latest <a href="https://www.forrester.com/report/the-forrester-wave-tm-content-management-systems-q3-2023/RES178520" target="_blank">Forrester Wave: Content Management Systems, Q3 2023</a> – a quarterly report published by one of the most prestigious and respected analyst firms in the technology industry.
The report, published today, provides a glimpse of where CMS platforms are positioned. Forrester ranks companies on a visual graph across several concentric strata: Challengers, Contenders, Strong Performers, and Leaders. A CMS platform’s position is then determined based on criteria reflecting its offering strength, strategy, and market presence.
<h2>Leading the CMS category </h2>
According to a <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230822212172/en/Acquia-Named-a-Leader-in-Content-Management-Systems-Report-by-Independent-Research-Firm" target="_blank">press release from Acquia </a>– one of the three platforms in the Leader category – the Q3 Forrester Wave report evaluated 10 CMS providers based on 26 criteria, focusing on the aforementioned criteria.
The report cited that “Acquia performs the strongest in low-code/no-code, translations for global content deliveries, and back-end extensibility – all supported by strong practitioner and developer programs.” The company earned the highest possible scores in the architecture (extensibility and configuration), practitioner and developer communities, partner ecosystem, and global delivery strategy criteria.
Optimizely, another Leader, also <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/optimizely-named-a-leader-in-content-management-systems-by-industry-research-firm-301908245.html" target="_blank">issued a press release</a> about its position. The Forrester report stated that the platform "performs very well in personalization, A/B testing, and translation and localizations."
Additionally, the report indicated Optimizely's CMS "excels at depth of content and audience analytics off the shelf (no additional licensing) and a strong ability to scale content delivery through its partnership with <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/contentstack-offers-microsoft-azure-becomes-only-multi-cloud-saas-cms-qa-with-cto-nishant-patel/">Microsoft Azure</a> and its cloud-native architecture."
<h2>Contentstack drives strong performance</h2>
While the Leader category remains the domain of large enterprise DXPs, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless</a> CMS players are gaining ground. Case in point: <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/contentstack-raises-57-5-million-in-series-b-round-qa-with-ceo-neha-sampat/">Contentstack</a>.
Buoyed by its <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/new-mach-alliance-maturity-assessment-tool-helps-organizations-evaluate-their-mach-readiness/">MACH</a> (Microservices, APIs, Cloud-native SaaS, Headless) focus and composable approach – along with best-in-class, turnkey, no-code integrations – the company is leading the Strong Performer category in the Forrester Wave report.
According to an article on the <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/resources/report/forrester-wave-report-2023?utm_medium=email-newsletter&amp;utm_source=marketo&amp;utm_campaign=2023-23-08-august-monthly-newsletter&amp;mkt_tok=NDg5LVdOSS0zODMAAAGNwg2flcZin6FEq-r-0_FcJUMeWdg_wzl49C_gzpN1gvxH7TnAnUakU4Mp4aFsa52WTa2dI1bZs97lBpqwBgmvq3Ivq1I0p0AUV9BkNOClolY" target="_blank">Contentstack website</a>, the report stated that “Contentstack performs well in several categories but shines in its ease of back-end extensibility through turnkey integrations, coupled with global deployments.”
Along with its MACH posture, the report also noted that “as a founding member of the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">MACH Alliance,</a> it excels in innovation, global delivery, and a straightforward pricing model.”
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/what-contentfuls-175m-investment-round-means-for-the-future-of-cms/">Contentful</a>, another headless platform, also scored as a Strong Performer in the report.
<h2>A broad CMS field from headless to open source</h2>
While a presumed crop of DXPs dominated the top of the mountain, headless players and managed open source platforms like <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/cms-monthly-recap-wordpress-acquires-parse-ly-siteimprove-releases-upgraded-accessibility-product-twilio-segment-releases-2021-cdp-report-and-more/">WordPress VIP</a> provided some variance in the landscape.
As the downstream vendors look to contend and challenge the market, it’s clear that composable is becoming a more important part of the mix – and helping to propel those CMSes to the front of the line.

Adobe, Acquia, Optimizely Top Latest Forrester Wave for Content Management Systems

<a href="https://www.netlify.com/" target="_blank">Netlify</a> has netted another competitive catch.
The leading web development platform announced today that it has acquired Gatsby Inc., provider of an advanced cloud platform for web delivery and content orchestration. It's also the company behind the popular open source framework <a href="https://www.gatsbyjs.org/" target="_blank">Gatsby</a>, a static site generator built on top of Node.js using React and <a href="https://graphql.org/" target="_blank">GraphQL</a>.
The San Francisco-based startup has been something of a wunderkind in the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-jamstack-static-site-generators-for-2021/">Jamstack</a> space and the toast of the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless CMS</a> community. In addition to a strong initial round of funding, Gatsby most recently closed on a <a href="https://www.gatsbyjs.com/blog/2020-05-27-announcing-series-b-funding/" target="_blank">$28 million Series B</a> in 2020 to grow its offerings. That said, Gatsby has been trailing behind its larger former rival, which pioneered the space and has been doubling down on composable – as signaled by its membership in the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">MACH Alliance</a>. 
The acquisition of Gatsby is Netlify’s latest move to support its vision of empowering developers at companies such as <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/twilio-acquires-segment-for-3-2b-adds-market-leading-cdp-for-building-data-driven-apps/">Twilio</a>, Mattel, and Verizon to build a better web and comes on the heels of surpassing 3M+ developers on the Netlify platform.
“The future of the web is composable architectures," said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathias-biilmann-christensen-a5a3805/" target="_blank">Matt Biilmann</a>, CEO of Netlify. "The acquisition of Gatsby not only accelerates our product roadmap, but more importantly, allows us to provide developers with increased flexibility and choice in building composable web experiences. We’re excited to integrate Gatsby’s cloud innovations into the Netlify platform and open up Gatsby’s content hub and source plugin ecosystem to the diverse world of modern frontend frameworks like Astro, Next, and Remix.”
<h2>The rise of "The Great Gatsby"</h2>
Gatsby first became known for its high-performance, open source, frontend framework that featured a powerful data layer and an ecosystem of high-quality content management system (CMS) plugins. On top of the framework, Gatsby built a cloud platform for building, deploying, and previewing large enterprise content sites and has since been growing revenue at more than 100% year-over-year.
To keep the power in the hands of developers and honor its deep roots in open source, Netlify is committed to being good stewards of the Gatsby open-source project, and the maintainers will join the open source group together with the creators of frameworks like Solid JS and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-jamstack-static-site-generators-for-2021/">Eleventy</a>.
Gatsby’s source plugin ecosystem – originally targeted primarily to content management systems – is also accessible to any data source that exposes an API (such as e-commerce systems like <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/cms-monthly-recap-shopify-invests-in-sanity-dotcms-updates-content-authoring-experience-wp-engine-acquires-plugins-and-more/">Shopify</a>), enabling teams to easily adopt composable architectures without having to write glue code. The company has been working closely with partners and enterprise customers to deliver the new <a href="https://www.gatsbyjs.com/products/valhalla-content-hub/" target="_blank">Valhalla Content Hub</a>, which builds upon their data layer and delivers a hosted, fault-tolerant, edge-first <a href="https://graphql.org/" target="_blank">GraphQL API</a>.
“After years of partnering with Netlify, we are thrilled to join forces,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/zurlocker/" target="_blank">Zack Urlocker</a>, CEO of Gatsby. “We share a belief in the future of composable architecture, and together, we will better be able to bring our cloud solution to enterprise teams and accelerate the adoption of composable.”
<h2>Additional Resources</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.netlify.com/enterprise/" target="_blank">Netlify for enterprises</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.netlify.com/careers/" target="_blank">Learn about careers at Netlify</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.netlify.com/jamstack/" target="_blank">Learn about Jamstack</a></li>
</ul>
<h2>About Netlify</h2>
Netlify is the platform your developers love for building highly-performant and dynamic websites, e-commerce stores and web apps. By uniting an extensive ecosystem of technologies, services and APIs into one workflow, Netlify unlocks new levels of team productivity, while saving time and money. As pioneers of the Jamstack movement, Netlify brings together all modern web frameworks, serverless functions and edge computing into one platform to deliver unmatched user experiences. Millions of developers and businesses build with Netlify, from Fortune 500 companies like Unilever and Verizon to companies changing our digital experiences like Peloton and Twilio. Get started for free at <a href="https://www.netlify.com/enterprise/" target="_blank">netlify.com</a>.
<h2>About Gatsby</h2>
Gatsby is a web development framework that brings together all the best, modern ways to build on the web. Specifically designed to help frontend engineers leverage the advantages of cloud native architecture, Gatsby provides the most collaborative, secure, and performant way to build websites with access to a broad ecosystem of tools and enhancements via easy to setup integrations. Used by Fortune 500 companies including ButcherBox, Capital One, DraftKings, IBM, and Impossible Foods, the company is backed by Index Ventures, CRV, Trinity Ventures, Dig Ventures, Mango Capital, Fathom Capital, and prominent angel investors.

Netlify Acquires Gatsby, Aims to Accelerate Adoption of Composable Web Architectures

Today is Groundhog Day in the U.S., a peculiarly American tradition that marks the tipping point between winter and spring.
During a jubilant celebration held in rural Pennsylvania, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/01/us/groundhog-day-weird-history-punxsutawney-phil-cec/index.html" target="_blank">a groundhog called Punxsutawney Phil</a> – the affectionate moniker reserved for this hallowed rodent – is consulted on the fate of the weather ahead. If he sees his shadow and scurries away, it means six more weeks of winter (which is what he predicted <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/groundhog-day-2023-punxsutawney-phil-prediction/" target="_blank">this morning</a>).
One might call Punxatawney Phil a "critic," and his reviews certainly garner a lot of media attention. But given the fact that his predictions are only 46% accurate, he's not a very reliable critic.
But you know who is? YOU.
And you showed up in force this January to share your favorite nominations for the 2022 CMS Critic People's Choice Awards! We had an unbelievable amount of participation this year, so we're expanding our picks to include the top five contenders in each category. That means you'll have more platforms to select from.
There were a few ties, so you'll see six platforms in the "Best Enterprise CMS," "Best DXP," and "Best Free CMS" categories.
Now, it's time to pick the winners. <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/vote-for-the-cms-critic-2022-peoples-choice-awards/">Click here to vote now</a>!
You have until February 20, 2023 to cast your ballot. We'll share the results later this month, along with our Critic's Choice Awards, which are hand-selected by our CMS Critic staff. Just a reminder: you can only submit one ballot per valid email address, and companies that offer incentives of any kind will be disqualified.
The People's Choice Awards are all about you. YOU submitted the nominees and rallied your communities to participate, and we can't wait to see the results and celebrate your top picks. Share with your colleagues and friends to help get the word out for voting!

Cast Your Vote for the CMS Critic 2022 People’s Choice Awards

mk-patterson

Containers are cool. Seriously. And you don't have to "nerd out" to say so. 
Think about it: not only have containers revolutionized the cloud computing landscape, but they're also powering the future of <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/serverless/" target="_blank">serverless technology</a> – which is ushering in a new era of digital transformation for modern apps.  
Of course, with containers comes the complexity of orchestration. That means (utter dreaded locution): <a href="https://kubernetes.io/" target="_blank">Kubernetes</a>.
For the uncontainerized, Kubernetes is a Dutch word that means "helmsman" or "pilot" in English. And true to its translation, Kubernetes requires an experienced DevOps captain to steer the ship through the wild waters of the cloud. 
Meanwhile, in the choppy seas of CMS, containers are making the course easier to navigate thanks to <a href="https://www.contensis.com/" target="_blank">Contensis,</a> a content management system owned by <a href="https://www.zengenti.com/" target="_blank">Zengenti</a>. The company recently announced a new container-forward solution called “Blocks,” which is designed to help web teams build and deliver <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless websites</a>.
The Blocks, which use packages of code built as <a href="https://www.docker.com/" target="_blank">Docker</a> containers, aim to be easier and more efficient for both developers and content teams to use.
“Not many people are tackling the combined challenges of making it really easy to develop code, connect it to your content, and then deploy it,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-chivers-34a36b11/" target="_blank">Richard Chivers</a>, CEO of Zengenti. “More often than not, enterprise-grade websites have multiple technologies co-existing, from payment gateways and search to rendering, all in different programming languages. With Blocks, we’ve made it easy to have each of these running independently in their own containers, potentially even managed by different teams, yet giving the site owner oversight and complete control to set new features live or roll-back functionality quickly without impacting the rest of the website.”
With the introduction of Blocks, users of the Contensis CMS can deploy new applications or services – without prior knowledge of Kubernetes or container orchestration. This makes it easier to push small changes or launch massive rollouts, depending on your specific needs.
“The launch of Blocks has addressed flexibility, convenience, and support head-on,” said Chivers.
<h2>Catching up with CEO Richard Chivers</h2>
Last October, CMS Critic caught up with Chivers for an <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/contensis-cms-looks-ahead-with-headless-focuses-on-performance-interview-with-ceo-richard-chivers/">interview</a>, where he hinted at the coming release of Blocks. When news broke of its launch, CMS Critic reached out to Chivers to learn more about the new solution and what it means for the future of Contensis. He outlined some key details in an insightful Q&amp;A below.
CMS Critic (CC): Blocks sounds like serverless, particularly around the DevOps mitigation and the autoscaling capabilities. Can you speak more about the DevOps posture? Is there AWS or Azure powering the underlying infrastructure? Or is this a proprietary cloud solution?
Richard Chivers (RC): With a simple Github action, you can push a block to the Contensis infrastructure, effectively bypassing any traditional deployment models typically associated with DevOps, meaning you can have continuous deployment and releases set-up and configured in minutes, without the need for deep DevOps expertise. Users can tailor the experience to their precise needs if required, but our typical workflows cover the 95th percentile out of the box. The underlying infrastructure for blocks is built on Kubernetes, and from a deployment perspective, our Kubernetes infrastructure is built on our proprietary cloud solution, which does include public cloud providers as required.
CC: What kinds of apps can be containerized and run as Blocks? Is this strictly for Contensis sites, or can any app be deployed and orchestrated in your cloud (without worrying about managing Kubernetes, CLIs, etc.)?
RC: Any app can be deployed and orchestrated using Blocks. You don’t need the block to use the Contensis content API. As a simple example, we have customers such as Revitive who run the order processing side of their e-commerce application inside Blocks today. This app reads and writes data to Oracle Netsuite as it happens, pulling orders at the point of sale from the Contensis API, but this could equally be any other platform or system.
CC: Who do you feel is the primary audience for this enhancement? Is this a play towards developers and Git-focused app builders? With the authoring and workflow upgrades, it seems that you’re tackling multiple targets in one announcement.
RC: It is fair to suggest that developers and Git-focused app builders are a key audience for Blocks, but we see huge benefits for all organizations and teams. Blocks allows real collaboration around deployments. Developers can focus on the delivery of new features, and product owners can release and deploy changes when it suits them, which really takes the sometimes awkward tension between developers and the business away. We see Blocks as being a perfect fit for agile teams.
CC: The rollback capability is very interesting. How does this compare to traditional blue-green deployments? Is that the underlying architecture? How simple is it to execute the change?
RC: The concepts of traditional blue-green deployments are very much at the heart of our strategy with rollback and releasing changes. We keep old Blocks running until new Blocks take over and vice-versa. The key difference is that we are putting these tools in the hands of business people with no need for any dev ops experience, rolling back is just the click of a button and is rolled out globally in seconds.
CC: At the recent <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff23" target="_blank">CMS Kickoff 2023 conference</a>, there were many headless platforms in attendance and several from Europe. Competition is heating up, and features are becoming more commoditized (as many vendors noted). What makes Blocks a truly competitive and transformative pivot for Contensis? What else might give you an edge in a crowded field in 2023, particularly when technology budgets are being reduced?
RC: Blocks simplifies deployment, which ultimately means fewer vendors and fewer experts to help manage, maintain, and support them, in turn, commoditizing, so to speak, the process of deploying and running websites or apps in a headless world. This ultimately allows companies to deliver their goals faster and save money. A customer can again go to a company to run their CMS and web deployments under one roof and one support contract, just like they used to in the days of the monolith CMS, but they can also benefit from all of the advantages a headless CMS brings to the table. In terms of what we are doing, our new canvas editor, due to be released over the next few months, is a completely different way of editing long-form content and something we have developed from the ground up. We think this will be pivotal in the future of Contensis and our continued drive toward the ultimate authoring experience for our users.
CMS Critic: The MACH Alliance was also at the conference, and they shared some ambitious plans and goals for this year. Does Contensis have any plans to join the best-of-breed consortium looking to elevate composable standards for the marketplace?
Chivers: This is absolutely something we would be interested in doing, we have been watching that space for some time, we have planned to open the conversation this year.
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
As cool as containers are, they present significant challenges from a DevOps perspective. Without a Git-focused team that understands the nature of repos and CI/CD pipelines, a container strategy isn't complete. This might sway organizations from embracing container-based tools or resources to power their apps. 
According to Chivers, Contensis Blocks effectively bypasses those DevOps barriers, providing continuous deployment and releases without the need for deep DevOps expertise. As he mentions in our Q&amp;A, Blocks covers most of the complexity out of the box, meaning that some expertise might still be required. It also sounds like there's a mix of both proprietary cloud technology running on essential public cloud services.
Contensis is clearly pushing the envelope (a kind of container, if you will). Blocks is a great expression of "cloud thinking" at its best and endeavors to streamline the use of containers to drive headless website development and deployment to the next level. 
If you can't "contain" your excitement, you can learn more at <a href="https://www.contensis.com/events/webinars/introducing-blocks" target="_blank">https://www.contensis.com/events/webinars/introducing-blocks.</a>
<h2>About Contensis</h2>
Contensis provides a single place to create, maintain and deliver your content. Its content modeling, authoring, and governance features help your teams to create and keep on top of well-structured content. A flexible set of APIs makes it easy to use your content in any way you like. Learn more at <a href="https://www.contensis.com/" target="_blank">https://www.contensis.com/.</a>

Contensis Launches Blocks, New Container-First Website Builder: Q&A with Richard Chivers

Illustration of shipping containers being stacked.

No doubt about it: composable is hot, and the <a href="https://machalliance.org/" target="_blank">MACH Alliance</a> is on fire. 
This week, the heralded cabal announced the addition of four new members to its ranks: cloud platform <a href="https://www.vultr.com/" target="_blank">Vultr</a>, digital experience platform <a href="https://www.deptagency.com/en-us/" target="_blank">DEPT</a>, and customer experience platforms <a href="https://mapp.com/" target="_blank">Mapp</a> and <a href="https://fulfillmenttools.com/en/company/" target="_blank">fulfillmenttools</a>.
The latest batch brings the MACH Alliance's <a href="https://machalliance.org/members" target="_blank">membership total</a> to nearly 80 since its inception in 2020 – and reflects the rising demand for MACH (microservices, APIs, cloud, headless) and composable solutions across the market. 
"2023 has already seen solid momentum for the MACH Alliance and for the continued embrace of MACH, overall," said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/casper-aagaard-rasmussen/" target="_blank">Casper Rasmussen</a>, MACH Alliance president. "DEPT, fulfillmenttools, Mapp and Vultr add yet more volume to our movement and more power to our voices as we continue to push for a new standard in enterprise tech. They share in our belief that a composable technology stack is the best way to deliver on today's customer expectations and to gain competitive edge over those still stuck in the weeds of legacy."
Here's a bit of detail about the newcomers:
<h2>Vultr: birds of prey that simplify the cloud</h2>
Founded in 2014 in West Palm Beach, Florida, Vultr is the flagship product of <a href="https://www.constant.com/products/cloud-compute/" target="_blank">Constant</a>. Vultr has helped over 1.5 million customers simplify their software infrastructure with advanced cloud deployments through 30 million servers across 17 global locations.
Constant has been on a roll since 2021 when it <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/constant-the-creator-of-vultr-announces-150-million-credit-facility-to-expand-its-cloud-computing-and-bare-metal-platform-301274924.html" target="_blank">announced the closing</a> of a $150 million credit facility from J.P. Morgan and Bank of America – including a $25 million uncommitted expansion option to accommodate future growth. Constant has used the capital to expand its global footprint of automated cloud infrastructure to serve its rapidly-growing customer base, further solidifying its leadership position in the independent cloud provider market.
<h2>Experience digital depth with DEPT</h2>
DEPT is a global digital agency specializing in marketing technology. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Amsterdam, with more than 30 international locations.
DEPT recently utilized a headless architecture (one of the core principles of MACH) as part of its "motion first" identity delivery for the 2022 <a href="https://www.deptagency.com/case/the-mtv-video-music-awards-vmas/?utm_source=linkedin&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=gl-case-the-mtv-video-music-awards-vmas" target="_blank">MTV Video and Music Awards</a>. DEPT's innovation helped merge both the physical and digital experiences of the VMAs utilizing one dynamic design distributed via a composable strategy. 
<h2>Get customers on the Mapp</h2>
Mapp, an “insight-led” customer experience platform based in Berlin, combines data with artificial intelligence to help marketers connect with consumers.
Mapp uses AI to sort through massive amounts of data to help marketers predict customer behavior. Headless architecture through the Mapp Cloud helps marketers build an <a href="https://mapp.com/blog/mapp-updates-its-insight-led-customer-experience-platform/" target="_blank">engagement strategy</a> for customers, showing up when and where consumers are most likely to turn a nudge into a sale.
<h2>Fulfilling retail growth with fulfillmenttools</h2>
fulfillmenttools is a new(ish) company formed in 2020 as a spin-off of <a href="https://www.rewe-group.com/en/company/structure-and-saleslines/rewe-digital/" target="_blank">REWE Group digital</a>. fulfillmenttools helps retailers and customers during every part of the fulfillment process leveraging composable and MACH-oriented strategies. 
The platform – recognized by both Gartner and Forrester – prides itself on an omnichannel approach to fulfillment for B2B and B2C retailers, as well as D2C brands worldwide.
<h2>What's next for the MACH Alliance in 2023?</h2>
Along with a packed schedule of activities that includes multiple member events, the Alliance is planning a <a href="https://machalliance.org/machevents/mach-haus-las-vegas" target="_blank">MACH Haus US Roadshow</a> stop in Las Vegas during <a href="https://shoptalk.com/" target="_blank">ShopTalk 2023</a>. This follows an engaging MACH Haus session held this past January during the <a href="https://nrfbigshow.nrf.com/about/2023-event-recap#:~:text=Retail's%20Big%20Show%20took%20place,video%20highlights%20from%20NRF%202023." target="_blank">National Retail Federation (NRF) show</a> in New York City.
While the year is still kicking off, many companies continue to debate whether a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/global-markets-recession-2023-02-10/" target="_blank">recession will rear its head in 2023</a>. While economic conditions appear to be improving in some sectors, the tech landscape has experienced a blight of staggering layoffs – even in light of a U.S. jobs report <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/02/03/business/jobs-report-january-economy#:~:text=The%20United%20States%20added%20517%2C000,in%20the%20summer%20of%201969." target="_blank">showing unprecedented gains</a> in January. While companies like Amazon, Google, Meta, and Salesforce are attributing these RIWs to a "spree of over-hiring" during the Covid-19 pandemic, it's clear that nothing is clear. 
At a <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-alliance-roundtable-focuses-on-composability-and-innovation-as-economic-activators-in-2023/">MACH Alliance Roundtable</a> that CMS Critic covered in December, there was deep discussion around the potential for MACH and composable to meet the challenges of a coming economic retraction. Given shifting geopolitics and growing uncertainty, it's a safe bet that technology budgets will continue to be a key topic for Alliance members over the coming quarters – and how MACH can provide greater agility during these periods. 
Since its founding in 2020, the MACH Alliance has grown into a consortium for innovation, steadily adding more members and specialized expertise to its community. As noted in our previous <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">interview with Casper Rasmussen</a>, education is a pivotal part of the program, and we can expect to see more investment in resources that promote the values and standards of MACH. From a customer perspective, these tools will further benefit their journey when selecting best-of-breed technologies from within the Alliance ecosystem to build their composable solutions. 
One thing to be sure of: the MACH Alliance will continue to grow.

MACH Alliance Adds Four New Members: Vultr, DEPT, Mapp and fulfillmenttools

MACH Alliance Certified emblem with Vultr, DEPT, Mapp, and fulfillmenttools logos around it.

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