Articles - Page 149

Agentic AI for Agencies in 2026

bmckeiver

Yesterday, the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-alliance-releases-study-on-adoption-of-mach-technologies-by-tech-leaders-qa-with-sonja-keerl/">MACH Alliance</a> – a group of independent tech companies dedicated to advocating for open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems – <a href="https://machalliance.org/newsroom/stripe-joins-the-mach-alliance">announced that Stripe</a> had joined its membership ranks. This noteworthy addition brings the organization to nearly 90 members.
<a href="https://stripe.com/en-nl">Stripe</a>, a leading internet payment processing platform, is trusted by enterprises around the globe to accept payments, send payouts, and manage their businesses online. This includes leading brands like Amazon, BigCommerce, Ford, Zara, Maersk, and more.
“Stripe serves as an excellent example of a company that’s built upon a modern technical infrastructure,” said <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">Casper Rasmussen</a>, MACH Alliance president. “They’ll be strong champions for the Alliance across their vast network of users and partners, which will influence broader embrace of MACH across the fintech category.”
As noted in the MACH Alliance press release, organizations of all backgrounds – from startups to digital natives to traditional enterprises – require MACH principals to grow. According to its <a href="https://machalliance.org/newsroom/mach-global-research-2023">annual survey </a>of global IT decision-makers, the inability to innovate stifles competitiveness. This is further compounded by the need to accelerate time to market. Adding Stripe to the MACH Alliance provides another trusted technology layer for building composable architectures to meet the demands of an evolving market – allowing businesses to respond to change and deliver customer experiences faster and at scale.
“MACH Alliance is enhancing the online commerce space and is a leading standard for the industry,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorothycopeland/">Dorothy Copeland</a>, global head of partnerships at Stripe. “Becoming a member was an obvious choice – many existing Alliance members are already Stripe users and partners, which demonstrates the importance of this ecosystem to accelerate digital experiences." 
The Stripe announcement comes as the MACH Alliance begins its <a href="https://the.machalliance.org/machtwo/">MACH Two Conference</a> in Amsterdam. The event – dubbed “Art and Science” – offers two days with expert practitioners and C-suite leaders as they discuss the future of composable technology. Speakers from the Lego Group, Harry Rosen, and other respected industry brands will provide insight through their successful MACH and composable use cases. The conference will also feature MACH technology ISVs and system integrators from the Alliance member community building MACH and composable solutions.
<h2>About the MACH Alliance</h2>
The MACH Alliance is a [501(c)(6)] non-profit organization, governed by an independent board and does not endorse specific vendors, members or otherwise. The Alliance was formed in June 2020 to help enterprise organizations navigate the complex modern technology landscape. It aims to guide and show the business advantage of open tech ecosystems that are Microservices based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS and Headless. All MACH Alliance members meet certification principles that are published on the website. The MACH Alliance welcomes technology companies and individual industry experts who share the same vision for the future. Learn more at <a href="https://machalliance.org/">machalliance.org,</a> read here about <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/mach-certification-a-seal-of-confidence">MACH certification</a> and follow us on <a href="https://twitter.com/machalliance">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/machalliance/">LinkedIn</a>.
<h2>About Stripe</h2>
Stripe is a financial infrastructure platform for businesses. Millions of companies – from the world’s largest enterprises to the most ambitious startups – use Stripe to accept payments, grow their revenue, and accelerate new business opportunities. Headquartered in San Francisco and Dublin, the company aims to increase the GDP of the internet.

Stripe Joins MACH Alliance, Bringing Organization to Nearly 90 Members

cms-critic-staff

MACH Alliance and Stripe logo for announcement

It's impossible to deny the impact of AI on the CMS industry. As platforms race to add new features that leverage <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/from-chatbots-to-contentops-how-ai-is-coming-to-your-cms-whether-you-like-it-or-not/">ChatGPT</a> and other generative technologies, few have incorporated AI beyond some basic integrations. 
But that's starting to change. This week, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/kontent-ai-raises-40-million-to-bring-the-power-of-ai-to-content-management/">Kontent.ai</a> – an industry-leading headless CMS – announced a new set of native AI capabilities that will give users complete control to create and manage content across their organization.
According to the company's press release, Kontent.ai will now deliver the first and only context-aware AI that is fully integrated into its CMS product. This provides control from ideation to editing to customer experience in real time, displaying how content will look on websites and applications.
In addition to improving efficiency and productivity, the new AI will provide a layer of content governance – a unique advantage in the CMS landscape of AI capabilities. 
“Native AI skills inside Kontent.ai leverage the power of artificial intelligence while minimizing the risks often associated with it,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/petrpalas/">Petr Palas</a>, Founder, Kontent.ai. “Content management challenges will only increase as more content is generated with the adoption of AI. However, we anticipated this and built a solution that works across the organization for the marketer, the developer, and the content creator."
<h2>Delivering real value to content creators with AI</h2>
As demand for content across organizations increases, teams are struggling to manage, maintain, and govern content at scale. Kontent.ai says that building these native AI-powered skills into its headless CMS is an evolution of its platform, designed to meet this challenge in a single solution.
Some benefits of Kontent.ai's native AI skills include:
<ul>
<li>Increased efficiency: Improve all stages of the content management process from creation to review with the power and speed of artificial intelligence.</li>
<li>Faster time to value: Leverage native AI skills immediately without the need for external integrations, plug-ins, or development resources within a headless CMS.</li>
<li>Consistency at scale: Develop core content, versions, style, tone of voice, and more – instantly.</li>
<li>Simplified content governance: Safeguard brand and content guidelines seamlessly using AI.</li>
</ul>
“The vision and innovation of Kontent.ai is what makes them a trusted partner,” reports <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-d-orio-22a32517/" target="_blank">Michael D'Orio</a>, VP of Marketing from American Bath Group. “As a long-term customer, who just won the MACH Impact Awards for Best Overall Change Product by the MACH Alliance, we’ve reached new levels of success with Kontent.ai and look forward to the newest solution.”
Learn more about the native AI capabilities of Kontent.ai on the <a href="https://kontent.ai/events-and-webinars/first-look-at-native-ai-capabilities-in-kontent-ai/" target="_blank">upcoming webinar</a> on June 20, 2023.
An <a href="https://kontent.ai/specials/introducing-native-ai-capabilities/" target="_blank">early access program</a> for current customers is also available.
<h2>About Kontent.ai</h2>
Kontent.ai is the headless CMS that gives organizations complete control over content to speed up time to market and engage meaningfully with audiences across channels. In the Kontent.ai platform, governance underpins all operations and workflows. Content creators collaborate in real time, making it easier to land on the best ideas, reduce bottlenecks, and maximize the impact of everything that’s created. Kontent.ai is an API-first cloud-native solution, so developers can use their favorite technologies, languages, and frameworks to deliver seamless experiences that look and feel great on any channel. With offices in New York, London, Amsterdam, Brno, and Sydney, Kontent.ai supports global customers, including Zurich Insurance, Algolia, and Oxford University. Kontent.ai is a Microsoft partner and MACH Alliance member, recognized by both Gartner and Forrester.

Kontent.ai Introduces Industry’s First Headless CMS with Native AI Capabilities

Kontent.ai logo against a tech background

AI continues to drive platform innovation, and builders are being treated to new features daily. While generative technologies like <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/from-chatbots-to-contentops-how-ai-is-coming-to-your-cms-whether-you-like-it-or-not/">ChatGPT</a> are powering apps with a range of capabilities, having the right infrastructure for product development and deployment is a key requirement. 
To that end, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/vercel-launches-new-visual-editing-feature-with-sanity-cms/">Vercel</a> – the frontend cloud for deploying applications quickly and easily – <a href="https://vercel.com/blog/introducing-the-vercel-ai-sdk" target="_blank">just launched</a> a new software development kit for AI apps built with React and Svelte. This includes the Vercal AI SDK for easily streaming API responses from AI models and the Chat &amp; Prompt Playground for exploring models via OpenAI, Hugging Face, and more.
According to the company's website, several AI platforms – including Scale, Jasper, and Jenni – have launched using Vercel and Next.js, its React-based web development framework. Next.js provides the essential tooling and configuration required for React, as well as additional structure and optimizations. 
<h2>Ready for AI with a purpose-built SDK</h2>
The <a href="https://sdk.vercel.ai/" target="_blank">Vercel AI SDK</a> is an <a href="https://github.com/vercel-labs/ai" target="_blank">open-source</a> library with developers in mind. With the SDK, users can build conversational, streaming, and chat user interfaces using JavaScript and TypeScript. According to the company's post, the SDK supports React/Next.js and Svelte/SvelteKit, with support for Nuxt/Vue coming soon. 
Vercel’s AI SDK embraces interoperability and includes first-class support for <a href="https://openai.com/" target="_blank">OpenAI</a>, <a href="https://js.langchain.com/docs/" target="_blank">LangChain</a>, and <a href="https://huggingface.co/" target="_blank">Hugging Face</a> Inference. Regardless of a user's preferred AI model provider, they can leverage the Vercel AI SDK to create cutting-edge streaming UI experiences.
The AI SDK also includes "streaming first" UI helpers that enable real-time dynamic data representation in applications. Vercel also included callbacks for storing completed streaming responses to a database within the same request, allowing more efficient data management when handling text responses. 
From a cloud scalability perspective, the AI SDK is already integrated with Vercel products like Serverless and Edge Functions. This allows users to build AI applications that deploy instantly, stream generated responses, and are cost-effective. 
<h2>A playground for chat</h2>
In late April, Vercel launched an interactive online prompt playground called <a href="http://play.vercel.ai/" target="_blank">play.vercel.ai</a>, allowing developers to compare various language model results in real time. Users can then tweak parameters and quickly generate Next.js, Svelte, and Node.js code.
Last week, Vercel added a new chat interface to this playground, allowing developers to compare chat models simultaneously. The company also added code generation support for the new AI SDK, allowing users to go from playground to chat app in just a few clicks. 
<h2>About Vercel</h2>
Vercel is the cloud platform for frontend developers, providing the speed and reliability innovators need to create at the moment of inspiration. By providing the toolkit frontend teams love, Vercel unlocks developer potential and enables you to go from idea to global application in seconds. Vercel enables customers like Under Armour, Nintendo, The Washington Post, and Zapier to build delightful user experiences on the Web.

Vercel Introduces SDK for Building AI Apps with React and Svelte

<a href="http://www.machalliance.org/" target="_blank">MACH Alliance,</a> the not-for-profit industry body that advocates for open and best-of-breed enterprise technology ecosystems, just announced the launch of its new Women in MACH mentorship program. 
In previous articles, we've covered the Women in MACH initiative, which has become integral to the MACH Alliance’s roadmap. Mentorship has been earmarked as one of three core pillars for the Women in MACH movement in 2023 and will be offered as a unique benefit to MACH Alliance members.
The new program was on center stage at the recent <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-two-conference-wrap-six-takeaways-from-the-composable-event-of-the-year/">MACH Two Conference</a> in Amsterdam, where more than 100 people signed on as mentors during the event. This groundswell of interest reflects the community’s appetite to promote change and increase diversity and inclusion.
“From the very beginning, the MACH Alliance has been committed to encouraging companies across the MACH ecosystem to strive for best-of-breed architectures,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jguthmann/" target="_blank">Jasmin Guthmann</a>, Vice President &amp; Executive Board Member of the MACH Alliance. “Why stop there? We saw a golden opportunity to expand our advocacy mission to nurture the professional growth of women, and the Women in MACH mentorship program is the perfect avenue to do that. Our intent is to grow the Women in MACH mentorship program into an overarching mentorship program for increased diversity, equity and inclusion by early-2024.”
<h2>MACHifying mentorship</h2>
The MACH Alliance has been a champion of mentorship since its founding in 2020. The new mentorship program builds on the MACH Alliance’s fall 2022 <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-alliance-publishes-women-in-mach-manifesto-for-gender-equality/">Women in MACH event</a>, where over 100 high-profile attendees collectively authored its <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/women-in-mach-manifesto-for-gender-equality" target="_blank">Women in MACH manifesto,</a> urging companies to prioritize gender equality.
According to the organization's press release, its mentor/mentee matching will be 1-1 and cover six key areas:
<ul>
<li>Sales and marketing</li>
<li>Career development</li>
<li>Product and R&amp;D-related topics</li>
<li>Change management</li>
<li>Leadership</li>
<li>Team building</li>
</ul>
“We’ve said it before and we continue to emphasize that MACH is a modern category, and that calls for an equally modern approach to drive forward a new era in enterprise tech,” said <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">Casper Rasmussen</a>, President, MACH Alliance. “That requires rethinking the faces and voices that are leading the charge. We’ve seen firsthand what tremendous leaders and contributors women are in this space. This mentorship program is just one way we’re working to pave the way for the success of women and other diverse individuals to continue to succeed.”
To learn more, visit <a href="https://machalliance.org/women-in-mach-mentoring" target="_blank">Women in MACH Mentorship program.</a>
<h2>About the MACH Alliance 
</h2>
The MACH Alliance is a [501(c)(6)] non-profit organization, governed by an independent board and does not endorse specific vendors, members or otherwise. The Alliance was formed in June 2020 to help enterprise organizations navigate the complex modern technology landscape. It aims to guide and show the business advantage of open tech ecosystems that are Microservices based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, and Headless. All MACH Alliance members meet certification principles that are published on the website. The MACH Alliance welcomes technology companies and individual industry experts with the same vision for the future. Learn more at <a href="https://machalliance.org/" target="_blank">machalliance.org</a>, <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/mach-certification-a-seal-of-confidence" target="_blank">read here </a>about MACH certification and follow us on <a href="https://twitter.com/machalliance" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/machalliance/" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>.

MACH Alliance Launches Women in MACH Mentorship Program

It turns out an “ING” can be quite a thing.
Case in point: the role of a Chief Marketing Officer. For most of us, the word “Marketing” in this mantle concisely explains the individual’s responsibilities.
But drop the “ING,” and it’s a different story. Well… sort of.
In my conversation with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifergriffinsmith/" target="_blank">Jennifer Griffin Smith</a>, Acquia’s new Chief Market Officer, we discussed the distinction between these titles, and why the leading DXP added her – and this new role – to its roster.
We also covered what she sees on the roadmap for <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-taps-its-modular-open-source-legacy-to-drive-the-composable-future/">Acquia</a>, how composable is shifting the conversation, and why she’s excited about showing customers the “art of the possible.”
<h2>A marketing trailblazer in tech</h2>
Jennifer joined me via Zoom from a comfortable, unassuming home office. Originally from Europe, she’s been in the States for quite some time.
“As you can tell by the accent, I'm British,” she said. “We came for two years, and here we are 14 years later.”
For more than two decades, Jennifer has focused her superpowers on marketing for technology companies, with a deep focus on go-to-market strategies for both public and private companies. In her previous stints, she served as Chief Marketing Officer at <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/hyland-acquires-alfresco-focuses-on-cloud-and-global-expansion-of-enterprise-cms/">Alfresco</a> (acquired by Hyland), Software AG, and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/progress-launches-sitefinity-dx-14-0-enhances-digital-experience-delivery-with-global-scale/">Progress Software</a> – which owns the Sitefinity CMS.
In her most recent CMO gig at <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/brightcove-video-connector-will-bring-video-content-to-sitecore/">Brightcove</a>, Jennifer led the video streaming platform’s global marketing organization. This included product marketing and strategy, customer GTM programs, and new business, brand, and marketing communications. 
Given her legacy of leadership at content and digital experience vendors, I asked her what made the Acquia opportunity so enticing.
“I've spent some time with Acquia as a consumer, not just as a marketer or a business person,” she said. “I'm fascinated by the changes in how we want to purchase, learn, and engage with content. And I think, the way I live – my life – has changed so drastically in the last five years. Most of that is obviously through the pandemic, but just in my own need for time, and levels of service I expect, whether I'm researching a college, purchasing a shirt, or a car. Whatever it is, my expectation has changed. Then I look at the demographic of my 12-year-old son and the younger generation, and it will change again. I'm genuinely fascinated by digital experiences, and how we can bring it together as a consumer.”
<h2>From Chief Marketing Officer to Chief Market Officer</h2>
Getting down to brass tacks, I wanted to understand the new role of Acquia’s Chief Market Officer. How did Jennifer see it – and more importantly, what signal is Acquia sending with this expansion to its C-Suite?
First, it’s worth noting that the rise of the Chief Market Officer is a relatively new phenomenon, much like Chief Experience Office, Chief Revenue Officer, and Chief Growth Office. In a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimberlywhitler/2020/06/06/a-new-c-suite-role-the-chief-market-officer/?sh=7325514b6d9c">2020 Forbes article</a>, Christine Heckart – then the CEO of Scalyr – noted that “heads of marketing must, first and foremost, be chief MARKET officers, not marketing.”
Jennifer reflected on my question but started with a caveat: “Each CMO position is unique, and it's based on where the company is, and what the board and the CEO feel like they need. So it's hard to compare, because companies are different. But in my experience, most of what’s required in marketing is about the execution, right? And it gets into ‘how do we get the best return on our spend? What's your CAC? What's your ROI?’”
Again, the “ING” is the key here – and for most organizations that have embraced the Chief Market Officer role, it delineates the focus on tactical marketing execution from the strategic market objectives and KPIs that drive growth.
“Now look,” she continued, “everything results in pipeline, bookings, revenue – however you want to measure it. But I think over the years, we’ve become too focused on the execution piece. When we first had our conversations, I loved that Acquia reflected what I've learned in my many CMO roles: you cannot be successful in any of your program execution if you don't understand your market.”
The relentless creep of the marketing team ecosystem also stymies this execution. To Jennifer's point, we’ve accrued a range of discretely focused areas like product marketing, communications, brand, field marketing – and most are solely concerned with execution. And as Jennifer pointed out, most of these marketing professionals have never consumed the product, nor understand what a customer does with it.
So back to the question at hand: what does it mean to be a Chief Market Officer at Acquia?
“For me, the Chief Market Officer is hyper-focused on the market and the customer and how we can really help them,” Jennifer said. “But then it spans a much bigger role across connecting different teams all for the outcome of the customer, and making sure everybody understands what we're building. Because we're not building it for us.”
What seems clear about Acquia’s decision to hire a Chief Market Officer is that it has reached a pivotal point in its growth – one that demands a deeper commitment to the market while maintaining the execution of its marketing. With Jennifer, they get the winning balance of a seasoned marketer with an analytical mind geared toward growth.
<h2>Riding the composable wave </h2>
Jennifer assumes her role at a precarious time in the digital experience industry. The term “composable” has become a bit of a hot potato as <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless content management systems</a> align with other technologies to provide flexible, best-of-breed solutions to build their own DXPs. Organizations like the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">MACH Alliance</a> have gained traction by providing a membership ecosystem of pure MACH (Microservices, APIs, Cloud Native SaaS, Headless) solutions – partially in response to “headless hybrid” platforms and all-in-one monoliths.
At the same time, enterprise DXPs have endeavored to position their offerings as more composable, taking a product-based approach powered by robust APIs. Acquia’s open source <a href="https://www.drupal.org/" target="_blank">Drupal</a> heritage already embraces tenants of the <a href="https://dri.es/the-assembled-web" target="_blank">modular assembled web</a>. So it may have a key advantage in the market mele.
I asked Jennifer what she sees as the biggest challenges for Acquia as it positions itself within this narrative.
“Composable to me, in my world, just means flexible, right?” she said. “It means I can build something that will be unique to me. But some of our customers of a certain size would be frightened off by that because they don't have the resources to build it – and they want something that is very easy to use, secure, and scalable, but gives them the solution right there.”
Jennifer also explained that utility is essential, and data is the key to everything. This applies to the broader tech stack of integrations that Acquia is building value around, from CMS to CDP. “I love our CDP,” she noted, “because it goes way further than any other marketing campaign reporting analytics tool that I've used and seen.”
Knowing she’s new to the job, I probed gingerly around the topic of <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/from-chatbots-to-contentops-how-ai-is-coming-to-your-cms-whether-you-like-it-or-not/">AI</a> – which is firing like a bullet heard 'round the DX world. While she said Acquia is pioneering more solutions on its open source roadmap, she reinforced the litmus test around value.
“How do we offer a usable AI technology that makes a difference to [customers]? What do they need to move their business, right? What do they need today, and what will it be tomorrow? And not in a way that is so futuristic that we just talk about it. We need to deliver something that brings value to them.”
<h2>Showing customers the “art of the possible”</h2>
If there’s one thing that Jennifer is resoundingly enthusiastic about, it’s community – from employees to customers to partners. In her short time at Acquia, she’s already experienced how Acquia is differentiating in the service category.
“Honestly – and I'm not just saying this – I've never been in a company where I've met so many customers and partners, and not had a complaint,” she said. “I went to my first customer and partner event in London, and I got to sit and talk to so many different people, and just hear what's important for them. Everything from a financial services company to a software company, even a university – and they actually shared what they've learned more broadly with other customers."
Quite a testament, and something that Jennifer is looking to build on. In her mind, this positive community feedback is manifesting into momentum for the company, demonstrating how they can support customers in attaining the impossible – and realizing the “art of the possible.”
“I'm excited about using our community and our customers to really tell these stories,” she expressed eagerly. “And unlike some of our bigger competitors, we can do it nimbly – and make it real, quicker.”
<h2>Building a culture of diversity and inclusion</h2>
At the recent <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-two-conference-wrap-six-takeaways-from-the-composable-event-of-the-year/">MACH Two</a> event, I was inspired by the emphasis the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-alliance-expands-advisory-board-launches-new-mach-book-resource/">MACH Alliance</a> places on diversity and inclusion as core values. Technology companies have often embraced a more progressive stance, but it’s one thing to say it – and quite another to lead by example.
As a woman who has served in multiple C-Suite positions, Jennifer continues to shatter the silicon ceiling in the DX industry. She was quick to point out the importance of “talking the talk and walking the walk,” but this has always been an important focus of her work, and she’s managed to blend her corporate responsibilities with the growth and advancement of her teams on a human level.
“At one of my jobs, I was Chief Marketing and Culture Officer, because myself and the CEO had a fundamental belief that brand is inside out,” she said. “This was an open source company, and if we couldn't build a culture of people excited about what we're doing – if we couldn't nurture a community internally – we had no hope of building it externally.”
Jennifer also talked about Acquia’s focus on its people. This includes a Day One program where Acquia plants a tree for every new employee. It's just one of the company's many commitments to ESG initiatives, personal development, and nurturing diversity across its team.
We also reflected a bit on the impact of the pandemic on the work environment, and how Acquia is preparing for its next growth phase with a distributed team across the globe. Jennifer shared how Covid put everyone on equal footing, allowing people to achieve greater balance in their personal and professional lives.
“Acquia is a fully hybrid working environment, and my team is all around the world. I love that we can work very well virtually. Don’t get me wrong – I like seeing people face-to-face, too. But I really believe that Acquia walks the walk. And because of that, people are open. We might not all agree on everything, but we just have this culture of being in it together, which is so refreshing. It really is.”
Refreshing indeed. With an “ING.”

Acquia and the Art of the Possible: Interview with Chief Market Officer Jennifer Griffin Smith

matt-garrepy

Headshot of Jennifer Griffin Smith next to the Acquia logo

<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/netlify-to-host-headless-commerce-summit-for-talks-on-building-world-class-e-commerce-experiences/">Netlify</a> continues to net more of the composable ecosystem.
Yesterday, the web hosting and development platform announced the purchase of <a href="https://www.stackbit.com/" target="_blank">Stackbit</a> – a visual editor that empowers enterprises to build and manage composable websites more efficiently with a key feature: live previews.
"This acquisition brings the power of Stackbit's visual editor to our product portfolio, expanding our offerings to now empower marketers and non-developers to rapidly create, innovate, and iterate," said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathias-biilmann-christensen-a5a3805/" target="_blank">Matt Biilmann</a>, CEO at Netlify.
The Stackbit news follows Netlify's purchase of <a href="https://www.gatsbyjs.org/" target="_blank">Gatsby</a> earlier this year, a popular open source static site generator built on Node.js using <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/netlify-publishes-jamstack-community-survey-shows-developers-are-driving-the-future-of-remote-work/">React</a> and <a href="https://graphql.org/" target="_blank">GraphQL</a>. Gatsby had cultivated a strong reputation in the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-jamstack-static-site-generators-for-2021/">Jamstack</a> community, becoming a preferred frontend library for building composable architectures with a headless CMS. With Stackbit, Netlify aims to bring visual editing to its toolkit, providing a more complete platform for users. 
<h2>Powerful visual editing for composable websites</h2>
Over the last few years, web development platforms have focused on improving enterprise tools with a focus on developer productivity. Now, companies are looking for ways to deliver unparalleled value to marketers and product managers by leveraging collaboration orchestration. This has been reflected by the growth of digital experience composition (DXC) – an emerging category within the broader digital experience space. 
The acquisition of Stackbit expands Netlify's product portfolio, empowering users to design, create, and edit experiences within composable platforms. According to Netlify's announcement, Stackbit will deliver a range of tools and features that simplify the web development process and enable deeper collaboration between developers, marketers, and other stakeholders.
With Stackbit, users can connect any content source and use any tech stack. It also supports key tenants of composable architectures by eliminating bottlenecks and lock-ins around specific vendors or frameworks. For customers like Telus, one of Canada's largest telecommunication companies, Stackbit enables marketers, product managers, and project managers to create and update new and existing websites and applications.
Based on Netlify's press release, Stackbit is easy to use and can aggregate content from any <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless CMS</a>, content source, or custom data source – creating a singular, streamlined workflow for front-end content changes. Stackbit can also update objects within a UI and write changes automatically to the originating source.
<h2>Key benefits of Stackbit and Netlify</h2>
With Stackbit, Netlify plans to empower enterprise teams to build best-in-class websites, online stores, and applications. According to Netlify's website, Stackbit will expand Netlify’s product portfolio, providing a variety of benefits for enterprise teams, including:
<ul>
<li>No-code website editing: Using Stackbit, marketers, product managers, and non-developers can easily update and edit their websites in real time. They can also create pages, drop in components, and adjust layouts and styles on demand.</li>
<li>Design flexibility: With Stackbit, teams can easily customize the design and layout of websites using themes or create their own designs. This flexibility allows marketers to maintain consistent branding and improve the user experience.</li>
<li>Streamlined collaboration: Stackbit reads and writes content to and from your CMS, database, e-commerce catalog, or custom data source – making collaboration more efficient. </li>
<li>Compatible with any tech stack: Stackbit works seamlessly with any CMS application, content source, headless frontend platform, or framework.</li>
</ul>
To learn more about Netlify and the Stackbit acquisition, visit <a href="https://www.netlify.com/blog/netlify-acquires-stackbit-to-bring-no-code-creation-to-its-platform/">netlify.com</a>
<h2>About Netlify</h2>
Netlify is the platform for enterprises to build 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. With more than 4M developers and over 475 Enterprise customers, Netlify is the creator of the Jamstack movement, bringing together all modern web frameworks, serverless functions and edge computing into one platform to deliver unmatched user experiences, serving the needs of developers, architects, and marketers.

Netlify Acquires Stackbit, Adding No-Code Visual Editing to Its Platform

Big leadership changes are afoot at the <a href="http://www.machalliance.org/" target="_blank">MACH Alliance</a>, the group of independent tech companies that advocate for open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems. The organization just announced changes to its Executive Board and leadership team, coming on the heels of its successful <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-two-conference-wrap-six-takeaways-from-the-composable-event-of-the-year/">MACH Two Conference</a> in early June. 
As composable technology adoption increases globally, the MACH Alliance provides vendor-neutral resources, education, and guidance through industry experts, helping to support companies on their journey to <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-alliance-releases-study-on-adoption-of-mach-technologies-by-tech-leaders-qa-with-sonja-keerl/">MACH</a> (Microservices, API-First, Cloud-Native SaaS, Headless). As a movement, having transparent and democratic governance is vital, and the new board intends to fulfill the Alliance's commitment to diverse representation across member categories, geographies, genders, and areas of expertise.
According to the press release, the Alliance now touts more North American representatives than European. This reflects an accelerated adoption of MACH in markets like the U.S. and Canada. Additionally, the board has shifted its primary technology focus to concentrate more on business, marketing, and strategy. This transition will aid in advancing its mission, promoting the overall movement, and further supporting its expansion into North America within the next 12 months.
<h2>New Executive Board appointments 
</h2>
The MACH Alliance Executive Board comprises representatives from ISV, SI, and Enabler members within the Alliance, with an almost equal split between female and male members. Board elections take place every year, each term lasting two years, and Executive Board members are permitted to serve a maximum of two terms.
The new Executive Board appointments include:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/naragon/" target="_blank">Kristin Naragon</a> – Chief Strategy &amp; Marketing Officer at Akeneo</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/briankwalker/" target="_blank">Brian Walker</a> – Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) at Bloomreach</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/krithikaganesamoorthi/" target="_blank">Krithika Ganesamoorthi</a> – Senior Manager, Solutions Architecture at Amazon Web Services (AWS)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenerale/" target="_blank">Jen Jones</a> – Chief Marketing Officer at commercetools</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasmin-guthmann-a463a766/" target="_blank">Jasmin Guthmann</a> – Head of Corporate Communication at Contentstack (re-elected)</li>
</ul>
This new crop of members will join the existing MACH Alliance Executive Board, which includes:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/casper-aagaard-rasmussen/" target="_blank">Casper Rasmussen</a> – President and Global SVP Technology at Valtech</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-panella-b616911/" target="_blank">Jon Panella</a> – Group Vice President at Publicis Sapient</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianbachdk/" target="_blank">Chris Bach</a> – Co-founder and CSO at Netlify</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dom-selvon-1488958/" target="_blank">Dom Selvon</a> – Chief Technology Officer at Apply Digital</li>
</ul>
<h2>Outgoing members of the Executive Board </h2>
As the new board appointees cycle in, the Alliance is parting with three very large pairs of shoes to fill:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellygoetsch/" target="_blank">Kelly Goetsch</a> – Chief Strategy Officer at commercetools</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jjwilliams/" target="_blank">John Williams</a> – Chief Technology Officer at Amplience</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/gordana-vuckovic/" target="_blank">Gordana Vuckovic</a> – Advisor, TAZI AI Systems</li>
</ul>
Goetsch has been – and remains – an important changemaker within the MACH Community. He has played a critical role in the development of the Alliance since its inception and served as its founding president. During his two-year board tenure, he significantly contributed to furthering the industry’s understanding of MACH and will continue to be a very active member.
Similarly, Williams and Vuckovic have left an indelible mark on the Alliance and bolstered the MACH movement during their time on the Executive Board.
<h2>2023 Elections introduce new Heads of Councils</h2>
The Alliance announced the appointment of several new Heads of Councils during its 2023 elections. Voting took place between June 28th and 30th. Candidates from member companies nominated themselves and campaigned for MACH Alliance member votes, which were cast as part of a transparent, democratic process.
The new appointments include: 
<ul>
<li>Growth Council: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/thetalofer/" target="_blank">Tal Ofer</a> – Partnerships Director at Cloudinary</li>
<li>Marketing Council: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewwadsworth1/" target="_blank">Andrew Wadsworth</a>, Senior Director Business Development at Apply Digital, joined by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/irinabotea/" target="_blank">Irina Boteo</a>, VP Marketing at Uniform</li>
<li>Tech Council: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuartguestsmith/" target="_blank">Stuart Guest-Smith</a>, Lead Principal Architect at BigCommerce, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertocarreramaldonado/" target="_blank">Roberto Carrera</a>, Strategy Architect at Apply Digital</li>
</ul>
<h2>New Education Council focuses on business and technical foundations</h2>
This year, the Alliance also announced the establishment of a new Education Council. The initiative will be led by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tareknseir/" target="_blank">Tarek Nseir,</a> SVP of Digital Engagement EMEA at EPAM Systems, who has been an active member of the Executive Board for the past year.
With this new council, the Alliance aims to turbocharge its efforts in the educational space, ensuring it remains at the top of the agenda. During the MACH Two Conference, Casper Rasmussen detailed some of the roadmap for the Alliance's ambitious education plans. The council will be critical in meeting that horizon, launching business and technical foundation tracks later this year.
<h2>Celebrating MACH Milestones</h2>
The board changes and election appointments come on the heels of several milestones for the MACH Alliance. Most notably: the celebration of its third anniversary. The organization recently attained 90 members, including <a href="https://machalliance.org/newsroom/mach-alliance-announces-paypal-is-the-first-company-to-join-new-supporter-membership-category" target="_blank">PayPal</a> and other global financial service providers – all while maintaining the purity of the MACH Alliance certification.
As previously noted, the MACH Two Conference – which was held from June 13-14 in Amsterdam – was a resounding success. The event brought together more than 600 leaders across the MACH community, providing a wealth of education workshops and sessions with real customer use cases and success stories.
“It has been an exciting and fun experience to strategically lead this organization for the last 12 months,” said Casper Rasmussen, President of the MACH Alliance. “We are looking forward to onboarding fresh thinking, new energy, and to welcome new individuals to our executive team. With this leadership team in place from August, we have the exclusive opportunity to really propel awareness, education and the advancement of MACH to the next level. My sincere thanks to our board for having been such an essential part of all our achievements to date.”
<h2>About the MACH Alliance</h2>
The MACH Alliance is a [501(c)(6)] non-profit organization, governed by an independent board and does not endorse specific vendors, members or otherwise. The Alliance was formed in June 2020 to help enterprise organizations navigate the complex modern technology landscape. It aims to guide and show the business advantage of open tech ecosystems that are Microservices based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS and Headless. All MACH Alliance members meet certification principles that are published on the website. The MACH Alliance welcomes technology companies and individual industry experts who share the same vision for the future.

MACH Alliance Appoints New Members to Executive Board, Focuses on Diversity of Expertise and Growth in North America

CMS Summit 26

Find out at CMS Summit 26, May 12 - 13 in Frankfurt, Germany

What's ahead for CMS in the agentic era?

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<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/uniform-raises-28m-in-series-a-funding-round-for-composable-dxp/">Uniform</a> continues to drive innovation in the digital experience composition platform (DXCP) space.
As a leading provider in the emerging category, the company just announced a series of enhancements to its <a href="https://uniform.dev/canvas">Uniform Canvas</a> and <a href="https://uniform.dev/mesh">Uniform Mesh</a> products. The new features round out Uniform's DXCP as the most robust visual workspace, empowering digital teams to deliver winning multichannel experiences.
The new product releases also complete Uniform's original promise of headless technologies. Now, brands can visually weave multiple API-powered technologies together to create high-performance digital experiences quickly and with greater agility. 
According to Uniform's press release, the new functionality will allow marketers to create web and app experiences faster and more flexibly. The enhanced features will also give developers broader scope for building lightning-fast experiences with innovative technology.
Below are some of the technical highlights and enhancements of Canvas and Mesh.
<h2>Putting power back in the hands of marketers </h2>
Canvas comes equipped with two new enhancements: Uniform Dynamic Pages and Uniform Redirect Manager. These powerful additions to the visual experience builder will offer marketers and merchandisers greater control over product-based experiences.
<ul>
<li>Dynamic Pages: Enables business users to efficiently adapt and iterate across thousands of webpages, such as product detail pages, to build visual experiences at scale without developer support. No-code templates and custom page creation drive seamless content updates, consistent branding, and improves speed to market.</li>
<li>Redirect Manager: Simplifies URL management through the creation of vanity URLs, activation of fast redirects using a modern content delivery network (CDN), and reliable page access. A visual tool helps business users quickly identify browser errors, improving accuracy and ensuring a smooth customer experience.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Freedom to innovate with best-of-breed tools</h2>
Mesh’s enhanced features underpin Uniform's DXCP capabilities by removing silos, eliminating weeks of manual coding, and freeing developers to work with their tools of choice. Features will allow users to: 
<ul>
<li>Utilize any data source: Build and reuse front-end components to boost implementation speed and flexibility.</li>
<li>Leverage no-code connections to any API: This includes headless services, legacy platforms, and single-use data sources, along with pre-built connectors for key services.</li>
<li>Use Edgehancers to enable cutting-edge performance: Automatically push content to a CDN’s edge to enhance page speed, user experience, and SEO performance – all without any custom code.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Accelerate time to market</h2>
Uniform is also launching a Component Starter Kit – an open-source and fully customizable collection of front-end components to streamline ideation for testing and production. Users can easily add these to a component development system like <a href="https://storybook.js.org/">Storybook</a> and connect to content sources using Mesh.
“The excitement surrounding the new release comes from its ability to empower digital teams and tackle the challenges marketers encounter when delivering high-performing digital experiences,” said <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/is-the-birth-of-dxc-the-death-of-dxp-a-conversation-with-darren-guarnaccia-president-at-uniform/">Darren Guarnaccia</a>, president, Uniform. “These latest capabilities elevate the visual workspace, enabling true enterprise scalability and seamlessly blends content, data, and technology at remarkable speeds. With enhancements to Canvas, Mesh, and the introduction of the Component Starter Kit, we’re fulfilling the promise of what headless tools initially aimed to achieve. The envisioned future is one where marketers can focus on storytelling and audience engagement, free from the constraints of traditional platforms and processes.”
<h2>About Uniform</h2>
Uniform DXCP speeds up time to value for composable experience architecture, lowers development costs, and makes it easy for business users to build digital experiences. A composable orchestration layer for legacy and modern headless systems or any API in Uniform DXCP eliminates the need for complex custom integration code. Instead, available for marketers, merchandisers, and other business users are no-code tools to build digital experiences with content from any source—without submitting developer tickets. Furthermore, Uniform DXCP’s high-performance personalization capability, delivered at the edge, raises conversion and CX for all channels.

Uniform Adds New Visual Editing and Integration Features to Enhance DXCP

Content continues to be a crucial marketing strategy for any organization. In fact, <a href="https://www.searchenginejournal.com/content-marketing-statistics/475206/#close">over 70% of B2B and B2C marketers</a> utilize content marketing as part of their overall marketing goals. Couple this with the fact that content marketing has been found to generate three times as many leads as traditional marketing, and you can see why taking a strategic approach is so vital.
Central to a company’s content marketing strategy is its ability to manage its own website content in an efficient and effective manner. A reliable and flexible content management system (CMS) allows you to create, scale, and enhance any piece of content.
Here’s what you need to know about content management systems and how to choose the right type of CMS.
<h2>What is a CMS?</h2>
A CMS is software that gives you the ability to create, manage and publish content for your website. Traditional CMS platforms, like WordPress, are considered monolithic, meaning everything is packaged together, with the front-end design and layout directly tied to the back-end code and database.
Another type of CMS solution is known as a headless CMS. Designed as a back-end only CMS, content is accessible for display on any device using an API. The result is a content-first approach to your CMS platform.
<h2>Differences Between WordPress and Headless CMS</h2>
Traditional CMS options like WordPress are built to display content through a single application, primarily a website. A <a href="https://buttercms.com/blog/what-is-headless-cms/">headless CMS</a>, on the other hand, is designed for content displays across a number of presentations, not just your website.
The differences between monolithic and headless CMS ultimately affect the content creation, operations, management, consistency, integration, and front-end execution of your content.
<h4>Content Creation</h4>
When it comes to creation and structuring of content in WordPress, information is managed through posts and pages. Posts are added to an existing blog and displayed with the newest at the top. Content is tagged into categories as a method of classification. These pages are considered static with the goal of providing information about one particular subject.
In a headless CMS environment, content and structuring are done through a web-based interface. The interface is accessible by content editors and authorized users who can create, edit, organize, and tag specific content. Content is generally stored in a database and available through API, so it can be displayed appropriately on any device.
Some headless CMS platforms, also have the<a href="https://buttercms.com/kb/category/content-modeling-basics/"> option of content modeling</a>, which allows for custom fields and creation of dynamic content and personalization.
<h4>Content Operations</h4>
Once the content is created and structured, it needs to be organized and produced to meet the needs of the target audience – also known as content operations.
In a monolithic environment, content management and organization involve scheduling, automatic notifications when new content is published, and configuring user permissions. Often, this occurs through third-party plugins, which can increase compatibility issues, security vulnerabilities, and more.
In a headless CMS, web-based interfaces can be accessed by any user on any device. WYSIWYG editor options, custom page types, workflow creation, and localization all provide a flexible and dynamic solution to content creation for a wide variety of audiences.
<h4>Content Management</h4>
Content management can be<a href="https://buttercms.com/blog/enterprise-content-management-challenges/"> your ultimate competitive edge</a>, increasing lead generation and conversion. This only happens, however, when you strategically plan your publication calendar.
In WordPress, content management includes SEO optimization tools (typically plugins) as well as automated publishing and scheduling processes.
In a headless CMS, content management is more agile because of the dynamic experience. Based on what device the content is viewed on, a headless CMS can allow for different structures and presentation styles.
<h4>Content Consistency</h4>
In WordPress, content consistency happens through a variety of templates and themes. The standardized look of your website is coupled with specific templates for individual pages and sections. While plug-ins, custom post types, and other items can help aid consistency, there are also several challenges.
Many legacy CMS platforms give users very specific features and functionalities, making it difficult to personalize the experience. In addition, any amount of edits can be time-consuming and difficult to scale.
In a headless CMS environment, content consistency is guided by a set of clear standards for structure, writing, language, tone, and formatting. For instance, a headless CMS could provide custom content types, fields, and typeforms, all centrally located and accessible through APIs.
<h4>Integrations</h4>
Because content does not exist in solely written words, it is important for content teams to pay attention to how content types integrate with one another. In WordPress, this typically happens through third-party plug-ins and themes.
In a headless CMS, things like Rest API, webhooks, CDNs and microservices all handle integration and functionality based on the needs of a particular application. APIs can retrieve and utilize content in the CMS regardless of technology stack or programming language to create a unique, functional user experience.
<h4>Front-end Execution</h4>
In WordPress, front-end rendering is done through code and WordPress templates. Through a system of templates and template tags, you can control the execution of the pages, their structure and layout. In a headless CMS, front-end rendering happens through a separate application that takes the content and places it in an API, resulting in the rendering the user sees.
<h2>The Use of Headless WordPress</h2>
WordPress does have a headless option. However, technically, it’s decoupled, rather than truly headless. That’s because the head is still attached to the backend. In other words, when you use Headless WordPress, you still have to deal, at least partially, with the UI when installing things like main plugins and performing the setup. 
Drawbacks to a decoupled WordPress environment include increased maintenance, need for heightened development experience, plugin dependency, and potential increased cost to get what other truly headless CMS options give you right out of the gate. 
Headless WordPress has several options that could <a href="https://buttercms.com/blog/headless-wordpress-how-to-use-their-blog-data-in-your-app/">benefit</a> organizations who are looking to test a headless approach. However, there are important limitations to consider as you look to align your CMS with long term strategies. 
<h2>How to Decide Which CMS is For You </h2>
There are a number of options to consider when it comes to the use of content for social, web, advertising, internal and more. That’s why it’s important to start at the beginning and develop your digital strategy. Honing your digital strategy will allow you to define your target audiences, set clear goals, audit existing resources, and create a proactive content approach. By understanding what you’re hoping to achieve, you’ll know what the best programs and tools are.
It’s also important to think about where you’re at now and where you’re hoping to go. While a certain product might meet your current needs, looking to the future will help you choose platforms that will grow with you and your company’s content goals.
The best future-proof technology tools will allow you to:
<ul>
<li>Increase productivity and efficiency</li>
<li>Improve the user experience</li>
<li>Allow you to scale</li>
<li>Give you advanced analytics to drive decisions</li>
<li>Enhance search engine optimization</li>
</ul>
Ultimately, understanding your present and future state will help determine the CMS that’s right for you. It’s an exercise that’s worth the time and effort as your website and its content is crucial to success in today’s digital climate. 
 
<hr />
Jake Lumetta is CEO and Founder of ButterCMS, and a CMS Critic contributor.

Marketing 101: Managing Website Content on WordPress vs. Headless

jake-lumetta

In any industry, buzzwords abound! 
In the Digital Experience (DX) landscape, it is no different – and you will hear a handful of terms that seemingly set the standard for the ecosystem.
However, you might not know what they all mean and how they are different from one another. That could pose a major problem, particularly as a technology, marketing, and/or business leader in the enterprise who is expected to be at one with the trends and best practices while leading their organization to digital glory.
I recently sat down for an hour during a<a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/tDAVv1VwHgU?feature=share"> DX Café interview with Andrew Kumar,</a> VP of Customer Solutions at <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/uniform-adds-new-visual-editing-and-integration-features-to-enhance-dxcp/">Uniform</a>, and we talked about four of the oft-heard concepts around the DX industry “watercooler.”
Uniform is an interesting company to start with as a frame of reference for much of this headless and composable DXP and product industry. As Kumar noted in the discussion, Uniform is “a rapidly evolving product set, but it is very much this visual workspace for digital teams.” 
One of our first orders of business was to define four specific terms within DX architecture: Monolithic, Headless, MACH, and Composable.
<h2>Monolithic: "All your software embedded into one application"</h2>
Kumar discussed the transition from monolithic systems to more modular, composable systems in enterprise technology. Traditionally, monolithic systems encapsulated all software functions in one application, which led to challenges due to the complexity of enterprises. Companies often had to adapt their processes to the monolithic system or spend significant resources to adapt them to their business.
Kumar suggests that enterprises' complexities arise due to their constant need to meet customer demands, leading to diverse offerings. When enterprises attempt to fit monolithic systems into their complex business operations, they often encounter difficulties.
In response to these challenges, monolithic platforms decompose into modular structures to support these complex business needs.
“I am starting to shy away from the term monolithic,” said Kumar. “And I'm shying away from that because the historical monolithic platforms are decomposing themselves.”
However, Kumar mentions that businesses often underestimate their complexity until they have analyzed their operations. Only when the complexities are fully understood can technology be molded around the business rather than vice versa.
He uses the term "all in one" rather than monolithic, as the platforms are becoming more modular and adaptable to fit the needs of the business. However, these all-in-one systems often do not integrate well with external modules, akin to battery packs that only fit one brand of tools.
While all-in-one solutions can be beneficial due to their convenience, speed to market, and easier vendor management, they often do not excel in any particular area, only offering adequate solutions for various functions. This can be a drawback for businesses requiring a specific solution or the best feature. Despite these shortcomings, it can prove valuable if the out-of-the-box solution fits an enterprise's needs.
Kumar concludes that the move away from monolithic systems is largely based on the level of complexity and customization that a business requires. The more complex and custom a business needs, the more likely a monolithic system is to be an impediment.
<h2>Headless: "Kind of a hot keyword"</h2>
Kumar talked about the concept of "<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless</a>" systems, which are becoming popular in the tech industry. Headless systems offer more flexibility than traditional "all-in-one" systems, as they separate the content from how it's presented to the customer. This decoupling allows for easier content distribution across various channels.
In an all-in-one system, content creation and presentation are intertwined. For instance, a Content Management System (CMS) creates webpages and websites. However, presenting the same content on a mobile app or other platforms like email channels, digital displays, or VR headsets requires significant effort to untether the content from its original presentation.
“An all-in-one CMS builds webpages and websites,” said Kumar. “(but) then if you try to build a mobile app with the all-in-one, you have to untether. You have to undergo a lot of effort to create flexibility. If you try to put that content into an email channel, or a digital display or a VR, like an Apple VR headset, it's a lot of work. It's feasible, but it's a lot of work.”
Conversely, headless systems don't know or dictate where the content will end up. The content is consumed through an API and can appear on a website, an app, or other platforms. This gives tremendous flexibility and allows reusing content across various touchpoints and channels.
The challenge with headless systems is that they do not inherently provide a way to preview how the content will appear in different consuming applications. Over the past six to seven years, Kumar has been developing tools to enable such previews.
The appropriateness of headless systems depends on the industry and the nature of customer interactions. Headless systems make sense in industries like telecom, where most customer interactions are through mobile devices or chatbots. Some organizations start by using headless for a single website before expanding to multiple websites, thereby beginning to take advantage of the system's flexibility. However, it's a different paradigm with a lean, out-of-the-box solution.
<h2>MACH: "Very high bar for standards of quality"</h2>
Kumar noted that the MACH in the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">MACH Alliance</a> stands for Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, and Headless. The MACH Alliance sets high standards for vendors in the tech industry, and not every vendor meets these standards. 
Like Kumar's company Uniform, those who receive approval can assure prospective buyers that their platform has been audited and meets specific technical standards. This approval can help support both the buyers' previous and future investments.
Kumar acknowledges criticism that the MACH Alliance is not inclusive but argues that maintaining high standards is necessary to push the industry forward. The high bar for entry ensures that the MACH Alliance seal retains its value and is not awarded to companies that do not meet its stringent criteria. Therefore, he views the exclusivity of the Alliance as a potential strength rather than a weakness, ensuring that only vendors that meet the highest standards are admitted.
<h2>Composable: "The way it's being defined is learning the lessons from the previous three terms"</h2>
Kumar lastly broke down the concept of "composable" systems, stating that this is the latest term in the tech industry. He sees it as a natural evolution from monolithic to all-in-one to headless systems and now to composable systems.
Traditional monolithic systems are now decomposing into composable systems. They're breaking down into smaller, more manageable modules that can be reconfigured per business needs.
“Headless tools are generally composable by default,” asserted Kumar. “Because they're unique, like ring-fenced capabilities that can be plugged and played as necessary.”
The MACH Alliance's standards, Kumar explains, push the needle on what it means to be truly composable. Having APIs on top of any software does not make it headless or composable. He highlights the importance of having clean, well-defined microservices to manage the platform's infrastructure. He also emphasizes the necessity of being "API first," where APIs get published concurrently with features.
Moreover, he addresses the importance of the Cloud in the MACH model. While one might have a headless system hosted locally, it would not meet the requirements of being self-serve, auto-updating, and cloud-native. In a cloud environment, the vendor takes care of security patches, reducing the maintenance burden on users.
Finally, he highlights the value of being composable for complex business enterprises. Adapting technology to business needs is vital in a rapidly changing business environment. While "composable" hasn't gained much search volume or intent yet, he anticipates it may become the next hot keyword in the industry.
Education is paramount in the ever-shifting DX industry. We hope you have gained a better understanding of some of the key principles that are frequently raised in conversations. 
<hr />
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/critics/matthew-mcqueeny/">Matt McQueeny</a> is part of the leadership team at <a href="https://konabos.com/" target="_blank">Konabos</a> and a CMS Critic contributor.

Exploring DX Architecture

mattmcqueeny

This week, <a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fkontent.ai%2F&amp;esheet=52780079&amp;newsitemid=20220713005621&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Kontent.ai&amp;index=1&amp;md5=c56e95cdd90647703ac78689ada036c6">Kontent.ai</a> – a <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless CMS</a> – announced the expansion of its Most Valuable Professional (MVP) program, which recognizes the contributions of industry experts who have worked to support the Kontent.ai community.
The expansion features two new categories: Strategy MVP and Ambassador MVP. These join Kontent.ai's existing Technical MVP program, which has successfully operated for several years and elevated technical personas and developers in the company's community.
Along with the expansion, Kontent.ai announced seven new MVPs joining the new Strategy &amp; Ambassador programs. According to the company, these individuals will play a crucial role in shaping the future of Kontent.ai's platform and help drive innovation in the field. 
<h2>Strategy MVPs</h2>
The Strategy MVP category recognizes and celebrates valuable members of the Kontent.ai community who demonstrate a strong understanding of modern digital strategies. These individuals highlight how Kontent.ai can deliver successful outcomes for brands in an evolving technological landscape by sharing their technical knowledge and consultative expertise with the market. The new MVPs include:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamgriffith/" target="_blank">Adam Griffith</a> (Luminary - Australia)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/akshaysura/" target="_blank">Akshay Sura</a>* (Konabos - United States)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianmckeiver/" target="_blank">Brian McKeiver</a>* (Bizstream - United States)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/katywhitedept/" target="_blank">Katy White</a> (DEPT® - United Kingdom)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/klaasjanmeijer/" target="_blank">Klaas-Jan Meijer</a> (ACTUM Digital - Netherlands)</li>
</ul>
*Transitioned from the Technical MVP Program
<h2>Ambassador MVPs</h2>
In addition, the newly formed Ambassador MVP category recognizes Kontent.ai customers that are considered experts in the deployment, management, and orchestration of Kontent.ai’s headless CMS. This category focuses on how the platform delivers superior content management experiences in a highly-competitive digital landscape. Ambassador MVPs are champions of Kontent.ai and advocate for what brands can achieve in their own complex digital and content management journeys. The new MVPs include:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-lamothe-87b78686/" target="_blank">Marc Lamothe</a> (American Bath Group - United States)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/hiremebecause/" target="_blank">D’Arcy Heath</a> (UNUM - United Kingdom)</li>
</ul>
It's worth noting that Akshay Sura and Marc Lamothe were part of the team that received a 2023 MACH Impact Award for the American Bath Group project – a composable solution that featured the Kontent.ai headless CMS. The project featured the migration of 10 websites with over 50,000 products in only 8 months.
The award was announced in June during the MACH Alliance's <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-two-conference-wrap-six-takeaways-from-the-composable-event-of-the-year/">MACH Two event</a> in Amsterdam. 
<h2>About Kontent.ai</h2>
Kontent.ai is a leading modular content platform that enables marketers and developers to plan, create, and deliver content at scale. Business teams collaborate daily in the intuitive authoring experience designed for governed content production and management, real-time reviewing and approvals, and modular content reuse. In parallel, developers leverage the total flexibility of the headless solution, best-of-breed technologies, and composable AI to deliver digital experiences via API to any channel. With hubs in New York, London, Amsterdam, Brno, and Sydney, Kontent.ai helps companies like Zurich Insurance, Algolia, Vogue, AC Milan, and Oxford University unlock the full potential of their content and connect with customers worldwide.

Kontent.ai Expands its MVP Program with Two New Categories

We live in a content economy. There <a href="https://linktr.ee/creator-report/static/Linktree-CreatorReport-2022-02f3aa05a27be6fecb3537b13d5ec9de.pdf" target="_blank">are an estimated</a> 200 million creators on the internet, and upwards of four billion social media users. If organizations want to tap into this burgeoning economy – set <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022/02/08/2380564/0/en/Global-Digital-Content-Creation-Market-Growth-at-CAGR-of-9-5-by-2022-2027-Research-Report-by-Absolute-Reports.html" target="_blank">to be worth</a> over $24bn in the next four years – they must expand their capabilities beyond serving customers basic text and images.
Consumers want connected digital experiences that draw from multiple content sources. However, many organizations risk being held back by their current CMS, as customization and integration challenges slow the creation of new or complex digital services at scale.
The result? Innovation happens at the pace that back-end architects and developers want, not the speed the business demands. If organizations are to unlock full value from content, an alternative approach is needed. Enter – content federation.
<h2>The evolution of the CMS</h2>
The CMS as we know it has evolved before. Two decades ago, things were much simpler. Organizations wanted merely to post text and images to a single website. Providers like <a href="https://www.drupal.org/" target="_blank">Drupal</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/adobe-experience-manager-evolves-franklin-launches-next-gen-composability-feature/">AEM</a>, and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/wp-engine-releases-worlds-first-study-of-the-wordpress-economy-cites-awe-inspiring-numbers/">WordPress</a> emerged to provide CMS platforms to meet this demand. They continue to have a huge market share today.
An explosion in the volume and variety of devices and content raised new questions about how businesses could deliver this content to channels beyond the browser. It was no longer a case of managing a one-to-one relationship between CMS admin portal and website, but rather a one-to-many relationship between CMS and smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, voice assistants, and more.
What emerged was the headless CMS: enabling platform-independent content distribution via APIs. It’s a model that has stood the test of time. And it continues to be a highly popular approach as organizations embrace composable architectures that enable developers to be more agile in creating new applications and services from reusable components.
From a CMS perspective, many organizations have needed to build and manage custom software to connect multiple content sources to their headless CMS. These could be anything from legacy CMSs, SaaS tools, and e-commerce components like <a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/website/digital-asset-management" target="_blank">Digital Asset Management Systems </a>(DAMs), to Product Inventory Management Systems (PIMs) and public/private APIs that link third-party data sources. As demand for connected experiences grows, IT teams must build and maintain more of these custom middleware connections, risking amassing technical debt in the process.
Ultimately, custom building everything is an innovation bottleneck. It’s not only expensive but time-consuming and really difficult to do well.
<h2>Unlocking the power of composability</h2>
Having transitioned from a one-to-one to a one-to-many approach, organizations now need technology to support a many-to-many architecture without adding cost and complexity. They not only need to serve content to multiple devices but also to serve content that lives within their software stack.
This is where federated content platforms offer an opportunity to evolve the market once more, just as it changed when headless CMS disrupted the space 10 years ago. The premise is simple: organizations can federate multiple content sources into a single universal API so developers that build connected digital services only have to develop with one API to serve content from very diversified back-end systems. This also removes the need to centralize dynamically changing data into a content hub and eliminates the risk of inconsistent and outdated data, as the federated API acts as the single source of truth. From a development perspective, this approach also accelerates innovation by enabling product teams to compose services significantly faster than existing methods.
<h2>The future’s federated</h2>
In a content-first world, the question for today’s businesses is whether they want to persist with the status quo, characterized by excessive innovation bottlenecks, costs, and mounting technical debt. Or, by combining composability with a federated content approach, organizations can choose to future-proof their CMS investments and significantly reduce their integration costs.
Content federation is the next major leap forward in CMS development. The improved integration of content and data will enable the creation of new digital services and business models in the content economy, so organizations can ill afford to stand still.
<hr />
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/critics/michael-lukaszczyk/">Michael Lukaszczyk</a> is CEO and Co-Founder of <a href="http://www.hygraph.com">Hygraph</a> and a CMS Critic contributor.

Why Content Federation Represents the Next Evolution of the CMS

michael-lukaszczyk

Europe's <a href="https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/cyber-resilience-act" target="_blank">Cyber Resilience Act</a> (CRA) has been a lightning rod of hope and controversy for some time. The proposal, which would regulate cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements, is meant to bolster rules for hardware and software and help enhance security in a world of evolving threats.
The CRA legislation targets a broad array of categories, including Internet of Things (IoT) devices, computers, smartphones, and applications – and institutes a range of new requirements for manufacturers to improve their product security. 
At the same time, the CRA has been viewed by some as a <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/eus-proposed-cyber-resilience-act-raises-concerns-open-source-and-cybersecurity" target="_blank">threat to open source software</a>, which has enabled innovation and fueled the growth of the modern internet. Open source projects like <a href="https://kernel.org/" target="_blank">Linux</a> and <a href="https://www.apache.org/" target="_blank">Apache</a> are used freely and integrated into a bevy of products, where they power digital services for billions of users across the globe. 
Given these concerns, representatives from <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/what-do-industry-experts-expect-for-the-drupal-10-launch-heres-what-they-told-us/">Drupal</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/joomla-cms-turns-16-celebrates-with-long-awaited-release-of-version-4-0/">Joomla</a>, <a href="https://typo3.org/" target="_blank">TYPO3</a>, and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/wp-engine-releases-worlds-first-study-of-the-wordpress-economy-cites-awe-inspiring-numbers/">WordPress</a> communities have banded together to address EU legislators amid the ongoing CRA amendments process. This week, the consortium penned an open letter highlighting the possible impacts of the CRA on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software" target="_blank">Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)</a> Content Management Systems (CMS).
Combined, these four CMSes power more than half of all websites around the world and play a critical role in driving a competitive European economy and enabling cross-border collaboration.
<h2>What are the concerns for open source CMS under the CRA?</h2>
One of the core issues with the CRA deals with proposed liabilities for commercial activity that results in security vulnerabilities. This would impact open source developers who solicit support or donations, making them responsible for damages due to a security issue even if they didn't produce the product itself. Such costs could put an unfair burden on smaller shops and individual developers that can't afford the operational and administrative costs to meet these requirements. 
There's also chatter about the risks involved with a proposed 24-hour reporting mandate for disclosing actively exploited vulnerabilities – which may, ironically, result in more threats from heightened visibility and inadequate remediations. 
It goes without saying that open source content management systems have profoundly impacted the evolution of digital experiences. WordPress – the most popular in the field – powers roughly 810 million websites globally, representing <a href="https://kinsta.com/wordpress-market-share/" target="_blank">43% of the overall category</a>. CRA could irrevocably change how open source CMS platforms are used in Europe, sending a ripple effect across the software industry with myriad consequences.  
<h2>Open source matters in the CMS market</h2>
To be fair, the CRA isn't being demonized by this consortium of open source projects. As advocates for enhanced security in European hardware and software, <a href="https://www.opensourcematters.org/" target="_blank">Open Source Matters</a> (a non-profit supporting Joomla) and the FOSS CMS communities behind this letter commend the legislative goals of the CRA. However, there are concerns regarding the potential negative impact of the proposed regulations on FOSS development and innovation within the EU.
"Individuals, SMEs, and institutions will be hampered either by enormous administrative burdens or a chilling effect on their activities (and a potential rush towards the American Tech Giants) for fear of risking penalties under the CRA. [...]", the letter states. "As mentioned by many other commenters...large and enterprise-class businesses may be the only ones able to profitably sustain the administrative burden of CRA compliance, quelling EU innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic livelihoods."
The letter proposes solutions to ensure continued success and alignment with the EU's goals. This includes clarifying the CRA’s exemption for FOSS and supporting users’ rights and freedoms. The letter also emphasizes the alignment of FOSS with EU core values – including human dignity, freedom, democracy, and equality.
<h2>Meeting with stakeholders to voice concerns </h2>
The proposed CRA regulation joins a platform of digital governance that the EU is spearheading. This includes the <a href="https://www.hrpo.pitt.edu/european-union-eu-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr#:~:text=The%20General%20Data%20Protection%20Regulation,of%20individuals%20in%20the%20EEA." target="_blank">General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)</a>, which was adopted in 2016 to provide a strong data privacy framework for European citizens.
GDPR was fully enacted in 2018, and has vigilantly handed down fines to entities small and large. The CRA is following a similar track, giving the EU's cybersecurity agency real teeth to enforce policies as part of its new charter. 
Open Source Matters and the <a href="https://www.thedroptimes.com/tag/inter-cms-working-group" target="_blank">Inter-CMS Working Group</a> (ICWG) have invited EU Commission members and other stakeholders to participate in a seminar in Brussels early this fall, fostering a collaborative dialogue to address the concerns raised. The seminar presents a cooperative motion from the coalition of open source communities, with the hope that friendly dialogue and collaboration might yield changes to the proposed legislation. 
The letter was signed by:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/crystal-dionysopoulos/" target="_blank">Crystal Dionysopoulos</a> – President, <a href="https://opensourcematters.org/" target="_blank">Open Source Matters, Inc</a>. (Joomla)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephahaden/" target="_blank">Josepha Haden Chomphosy</a> – Executive Director, <a href="https://wordpress.org/" target="_blank">WordPress Project</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivierdobberkau/" target="_blank">Olivier Dobberkau</a> – President, <a href="https://typo3.org/project/association/" target="_blank">TYPO3 Association</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/timdoylempa/" target="_blank">Tim Doyle</a> – CEO, <a href="https://www.drupal.org/association" target="_blank">Drupal Association</a></li>
</ul>
As events unfold, more information about the debate and the proposed seminar will be shared.
To read or download the full open letter, visit <a href="https://www.joomla.org/announcements/general-news/5891-open-letter-foss-cms-cyber-resilience-act.html">https://www.joomla.org/announcements/general-news/5891-open-letter-foss-cms-cyber-resilience-act.html</a>
<h2>About Open Source Matters</h2>
Open Source Matters (OSM) is a non-profit organization that supports and promotes the Joomla! open-source project. Its mission is to empower and unite a global community of Joomla users and contributors to cultivate and sustain an innovative and reliable content management system. For more information, visit <a href="https://www.opensourcematters.org/">www.opensourcematters.org</a>.
<h2>About Drupal, Joomla, TYPO3, and WordPress</h2>
Drupal, Joomla,  TYPO3, and WordPress are leading open-source Content Management Systems (CMS) that have significantly impacted the digital landscape. Each platform boasts its unique approach to web content management, catering to diverse user needs. Despite their different approaches to building websites, they share common values, emphasizing collaboration, accessibility, and community-driven development. Together, their collective strength fosters innovation and empowers website creators worldwide.

Drupal, Joomla, TYPO3, and WordPress Address EU with Concerns over Cyber Resilience Act

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