Articles - Page 42

Brightspot Illuminates the Future of CMS with Human-Controlled, AI-Powered Storytelling 

matt-garrepy

Top JAMstack Static Site Generators for 2021

paris-tuzun

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If you are reading these lines, there’s a fair chance that you’ve worked with content management systems for some time and perhaps have even used multiple different systems.
Now, if you close your eyes for a moment: Try to pretend that you don’t know much about CMS and the confusing marketplace. And then put yourself in the shoes of a buyer - a customer who needs a new CMS to power their digital experience. How would you navigate and make sense of it all?
Would you look at analyst reports? Vendor websites talking about DXP with CMS appearing below the fold? Would you rely on your digital agency of choice? There are many options, many considerations, and it’s quite confusing, to be blunt. Perhaps even more so now than twenty years ago, and to add some more pressure: Today your website is much more important than back then.
In this post, I’ll try to help you make sense of it all. Based on input from the CMS Expert community, I hope you’ll leave with some helpful and useful guidance to make sense of it all. Let’s start with going back in time to understand why it’s not easy.
<h3>Understand the CMS problem before solving it</h3>
Twenty years ago, I worked at a CMS vendor based outside Frankfurt, Germany and I thought I knew all there was to know about the crowded, confusing, and immature marketplace for content management systems.
Or perhaps rather, I was pretty sure I had a firm grip on what buyers needed, how to address the challenges, and how to navigate the still young marketplace.
Little did I know that outside my echo chamber, there was so much more to learn and understand.
Having worked for four years in various pre-sales, consulting, and product management roles, I had the privilege of visiting customers, prospects, and partners and seeing many different organizations behind the scenes. We also frequently ran into competitors and our partners also worked with multiple vendors.
You might think that back then, CMS was basically publishing webpages. It was much more. Much of the feature set you’ll find today was also there back in 2001. There was personalization, static or dynamic content, caching, workflows, mobile content, and much more.
My training was that CMS covered the digital content lifecycle from the cradle to the grave:
<ul>
<li>Content acquisition, like from existing sources, databases, external repositories</li>
<li>Content creation</li>
<li>Composition</li>
<li>Delivery</li>
<li>Archiving</li>
</ul>
Few CMS vendors cared much about archiving. Some vendors only covered the first 2 or 3 bullets and would later be known as headless. Some focused mostly on the last bullets and others tried to do it all.
And that’s the problem in a nutshell: An almost endless amount of use cases. If you then add plenty of room for innovation, the power of digital transformation and increasing spend, then you know why this space hasn’t exactly consolidated as some analysts predicted back then. Instead, it’s become more crowded and more confusing.
Before we move on, there’s also an important piece of good news: Thankfully, many more projects are succeeding. Let’s look at how you can find your way through the CMS maze.
<h3>Focus on your projects, but do your CMS homework</h3>
My preference is to look at how customers are doing it to identify patterns, but as the saying goes: All roads lead to Rome.
There are indeed many ways to smarten up and make sense of the CMS market. Irrespective of your path, I would encourage you to focus on your projects, your initiatives, and time-to-market. It requires many full-time jobs to stay on top of the CMS market – and it is a fast-moving market. Your job is probably to make a tool selection or to inform one and then move onto actually creating value. Keep that in mind so that you don’t fall into CMS analysis paralysis.
In my previous post, I shared <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/what-can-we-learn-from-the-w3c-cms-selection-process/">what we can learn from the W3C CMS selection process</a>. In brief, this was a story about a public tender with requirements, a strong emphasis on accessibility, and a selection process led by a customer in close collaboration with a digital agency.
Recognizing that you and your organization don’t know everything about the problem at hand at the beginning is a good place to start.
Leave some time and budget for learning. In particular, as you’ll run into confusing and contradicting messaging along the way.
Actually, when it comes to learning, and before picking one or multiple CMS vendors, now would be a good time to read a book like<a href="https://deanebarker.net/books/"> Real World Content Modeling by Deane Barker</a>. It’s absolutely worthwhile to know what you want to do with your content before you put it in a new CMS. I've written more about the book in this piece: <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/blog/2019/12/11/happy-editors-make-better-content" rel="noopener noreferrer">Happy editors make better content</a>.
You might also want to make key decisions about:
<ul>
<li>Who will own the experience?</li>
<li>What about headless?</li>
<li>How will you allow for interoperability?</li>
</ul>
So far, so good? Let’s move on to how to get more clarity and make sense of it all.
<h3>Getting ready to set sail in the sea of content management systems</h3>
Moving on from your own requirements and key initiatives, some customers turn to industry analysts. Several of them cover this space, although some today prefer DXP (Digital Experience Platforms).
Recently, Gartner released their 2021 Magic Quadrant for DXP, which covers key trends and vendors. A good place to start is this post with <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/key-takeaways-from-gartners-2021-magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms/">Key Takeaways from Gartner’s 2021 Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms</a>. To name just a few vendors included: In the leaders’ quadrant, you’ll find quite different vendors like Sitecore and Liferay, while Salesforce is rated as a challenger and Magnolia introduced as a niche player.
Forrester also came up with an Agile CMS report. In the evaluation, Adobe was listed as an agile CMS, <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/vendors/contentful">Contentful</a> is a strong performer and Acquia is also in there. These are quite different vendors with quite different systems. If you read the report, you can find both an overview of Agile CMS market trends and evaluations of 15 vendors’ offerings, strategy, and market presence. I haven’t yet heard customers ask for an agile CMS, but sometimes analysts do start a trend.
Traditionally, open-source options are missing from the major analyst reports. Some analysts have revenue requirements for inclusion, which makes it hard, while others look at global adoption or other criteria.
Besides the industry analysts, I would rather recommend turning to your digital agency or agencies of choice. How about asking them for their recommendations? They probably know you well and also have a decent understanding of the CMS marketplace. There’s good guidance to be found among trusted advisors whose jobs and businesses depend on getting your project across the finishing line.
Finally, as you are out in the open waters and swimming in the sea. You’ll likely discover vendors that you hadn’t heard about in advance. Some will try to change the game by turning your attention to their approach, their unique feature, and why you should choose them. That’s all normal and a part of it. Keep an open mind, but do try to keep the focus on your projects. Time spent talking to references is well spent.
Think you need a life jacket? In the final chapter, I’ll do my best to make sure you don’t drown.
<h3>Inconvenient truths about the CMS marketplace</h3>
You might think that after all these years, a helpful vendor or digital agency should be able to easily size up your project and tell you what it will take in terms of budget and team size to swim safely. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.
You’ll need to speak to multiple vendors, and ideally, multiple digital agencies to get the best proposal on the table. You’ll probably find quite different pricing and sizing in their suggestions, and you might also need to change course along the way, but that’s a part of it.
Do try to seek inspiration from peers. That’s a key part of going to conferences or attending something like our <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/groups/cms-experts">CMS Expert community</a>. By speaking to peers, you’ll get the insider story on the good, the bad, and the ugly. You’ll probably hear something on governance, working with the agency, and helpful insights on their CMS. As always: The devil is in the details.
Finally, a word on risk: Surely, there’s a difference between picking a regional vendor like Norwegian <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/vendors/enonic">Enonic</a> or a global powerhouse like Adobe. Yes, but just because Adobe is big doesn’t necessarily mean that they are more committed and more willing to invest and stay in the CMS space compared to smaller and lesser-known vendors. Just a few examples:
<ul>
<li>IBM sold their CMS offering to HCL</li>
<li>Microsoft discontinued their CMS</li>
<li>Interwoven was big back then but acquired by Autonomy</li>
</ul>
To be fair, there are still customers using IBM, Microsoft, and Interwoven to power their website. Just please don’t discount smaller vendors as riskier than larger ones.
Good luck!
P.S. – Deane Barker also wrote a recommended book on the topic that is packed with valuable lessons: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Things-You-Should-Know-Technology-ebook/dp/B086SCGCN8">Things You Should Know: 25 Lessons I've Learned About Selecting Content Technology and Services</a>
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How to make sense of the CMS market in 2021

janus-boye

It might sound repetitive, but it’s been another month packed with acquisitions, big investments, and major announcements from across the CMS and DXP landscape. The consolidation streak continues, particularly as enterprise platforms hunt for customer data and digital experience capabilities to gain a competitive edge – or simply keep up.
We’ve covered some head-spinning moments this March, from <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/optimizely-acquires-customer-data-platform-zaius/">Optimizely buying CDP player Zaius</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/hyland-enters-agreement-to-acquire-nuxeo/">Hyland agreeing to acquire Nuxeo</a>, and the real doozy of <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-acquires-boxever-and-four51/">Sitecore snapping up Boxever and Four51</a> at the same time.
We also covered <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/gatsby-unveils-v3-0-cloud-hosting-and-more-at-gatsbyconf-2021/">GatsbyConf 2021</a>, where Gatsby unveiled its version 3.0 along with cloud hosting enhancements and key partnerships. The event was sponsored by several CMS platforms, reinforcing the connective tissue between these communities and the growth opportunities within the JAMstack.
Adobe also made the news cycle, perhaps not content with its reign in the lead position on both the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/key-takeaways-from-gartners-2021-magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms/">Gartner 2021 MQ for DXP</a> and the Forrester Q1 Wave for Agile CMSes. This month, they announced the addition of new headless CMS capabilities and updates to its Commerce Integration Framework.
Here are some other stories we’ve been tracking:
<h3>Crownpeak Acquires Digital Experience Platform Provider e-Spirit</h3>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img style="max-width:650px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/03/crownpeak-espirit-logos.jpg" alt="crownpeak and espirit logos" /></figure>
<a href="http://www.crownpeak.com/">Crownpeak</a>, a US-based web content and experience management platform, has <a href="https://www.crownpeak.com/about/press-events/press-releases/crownpeak-acquires-digital-experience-platform-provider-e-spirit">announced</a> that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire <a href="https://www.e-spirit.com/us/homepage/">e-Spirit</a>. Headquartered in Germany, e-Spirit enables businesses to rapidly deliver personalized, content-rich experiences across online channels.
The acquisition combines Crownpeak’s SaaS-based web content management system and other best-of-breed offerings – which wrap digital quality, governance, and privacy into experience delivery – with e-Spirit’s key differentiators. This includes FirstSpirit, e-Spirit’s core product, which enables content-driven commerce experiences and personalization powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
According to company officials, the combination of Crownpeak and e-Spirit will create the most agile digital experience platform for brands – regardless of location or vertical – to efficiently orchestrate digital experiences that build trust and maximize customer lifetime value.
It's worth noting that Crownpeak and e-Spirit were in close proximity within the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/key-takeaways-from-gartners-2021-magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms/">Niche Player quadrant</a> of the Gartner 2021 MQ for DXPs. In essence, Crownpeak "bought the competition," although e-Spirit actually has a slightly higher headcount.
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img style="max-width:600px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/01/gartner-magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms-2021.png" alt="Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms-2021" /></figure>
e-Sprit will provide Crownpeak with a hybrid headless architecture, which has become an essential component for modern CMS and DXP platforms. Whether that will give Crownpeak a competitive advantage against other niche players remains to be seen. One area that might bear fruit from the unification is that e-Spirit will expand Crownpeak’s access to the EMEA region.
<h3>Squarespace Raises $300 Million Investment Round At $10 Billion Valuation</h3>
<a href="https://www.squarespace.com/">Squarespace</a>, the popular website builder and e-Commerce platform, announced that it has raised $300 million in a new investment round – and is now valued at a whopping $10 billion. The news comes just two months after Squarespace <a href="https://newsroom.squarespace.com/blog/squarespace-confidential-s-1-submission">announced</a> their IPO in January.
The new investor docket includes some heavy-hitting market makers like Dragoneer, Tiger Global, D1 Capital Partners, Fidelity Management &amp; Research Company, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. and Spruce House, with participation from existing investors Accel and General Atlantic.
“We’re thrilled to welcome our new investors as we continue scaling our product suite in service of our customers around the world,” said Squarespace Founder &amp; CEO Anthony Casalena.
Founded in 2003, Squarespace has built a stellar reputation as a small business website solution and competes with platforms like <a href="https://www.wix.com/">WIX</a> and <a href="https://www.weebly.com/">Weebly</a>. A “do it yourself” experience, Squarespace offers users a simple, code-free, subscription-based toolset for building your own website and adding transactional e-Commerce capabilities. It has become immensely popular, especially for artists, freelancers, and entrepreneurs who want beautiful, inexpensive, easy to manage experiences.
Hosting companies like <a href="https://www.godaddy.com/">GoDaddy</a> are also carving out a segment in of the SOHO/entrepreneur market space, offering a free website builder as part of their experience. Even marketing automation platforms are hungry to own the web layer, with players like <a href="https://mailchimp.com/">MailChimp</a> and <a href="https://www.constantcontact.com/">Constant Contact</a> adding web builders to their solutions.
On the more complex side of the do-it-yourself toolset, platforms like <a href="https://webflow.com/">Webflow</a> are offering a rich, dynamic builder with access to code, APIs, and a new CMS capability. Webflow also secured its own <a href="https://webflow.com/blog/webflow-series-b-funding">investment of $140 million</a> in a Series B this January (putting it at a $2.1 billion valuation).
Squarespace received a significant funding infusion of $200 million on a $1.7 billion valuation in December 2017. Their unprecedented growth – likely exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and a shift to digital channels – has driven the outlook beyond the SMB sector. The future may include a more diversified portfolio of customers in the enterprise range, where their <a href="https://www.squarespace.com/select">Squarespace Select</a> offering is gaining ground.
<h3>WP Engine Launches Atlas, the Future of Headless WordPress</h3>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img style="max-width:650px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/03/wpegine-atlas.png" alt="wpegine atlas layers diagram" /></figure>
<a href="https://wpengine.com/">WP Engine</a>, a leading WordPress digital experience platform, <a href="https://wpengine.com/atlas">introduced Atlas</a>, its new headless WordPress product line that enables exponentially faster dynamic sites with the flexibility and security that comes with headless solutions.
Delighting both developers and content publishers, Atlas brings together a modern development framework with powerful front-end Node.js hosting and headless WordPress – all in one complete package.
“Headless solutions are absolutely the future of enterprise WordPress, yet there isn’t one end-to-end solution out there that includes the dynamic Node.js layer, the static CDN layer and the Headless content management systems (CMS) layer, in one package,” said Jason Cohen, Founder and Chief Technology Officer at WP Engine.
As famous and iconic it is, WordPress has been “stuck” in the traditional category of CMSs, falling behind more modern headless or headless-hybrid platforms. This has been a significant drawback in a digital world that demands omnichannel solutions for distributing content. Atlas offers WP Engine an opportunity to shift the dynamics and develop new market potential around the headless play.
Today’s developers are under pressure to deliver highly-performant and secure omnichannel digital experiences that rank higher and convert better. To achieve that, they need a platform that easily scales and integrates with an increasing array of martech SaaS tools.
A headless WordPress essentially means no WordPress frontend. Companies that use an entirely headless solution typically host a separate JavaScript application for the frontend, which pulls specific WordPress data via APIs via the <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/">WordPress REST API</a> or the <a href="https://www.wpgraphql.com/">WPGraphQL plugin</a>. With Atlas, WordPress will join the growing ranks of headless CMS solutions that are powering modern digital experiences.
“With Atlas, developers aren’t forced to choose between incredible site performance and dynamic experiences," said Cohen. "And they can keep the open-source CMS platform that drives 40% of the web, now upgraded to support developers’ modern architecture. It’s the best of all worlds.”
To learn more about Atlas from WP Engine, <a href="https://wpengine.com/atlas">click here</a>.
<h3>Siteimprove Releases New Study Guiding Manufacturers on Powerful Digital Engagement Strategies</h3>
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/siteimprove-seo-provides-all-in-one-capabilities-for-enhancing-search-performance/">Siteimprove</a>, an industry-leading accessibility scanning and monitoring solution provider, announced the release of a new study, “<a href="https://hello.siteimprove.com/en-us/content/report/consumerreport">Achieving Success in the Age of the Digital Consumer</a>.”
For the report, Siteimprove partnered with Adobe and Capgemini to survey 3,025 U.S. consumers to discover what key elements currently distinguish B2B and D2C digital experiences – and what consumers expect from online experiences and brand relationships.
Some key findings in the survey include:
<ul>
<li>83 percent of respondents said their online research experience is somewhat important to very important in the purchase process – with 43 percent saying it is very important.</li>
<li>Online influencers have now largely replaced retail employees as a primary pre-purchasing voice. While 52.69 percent of respondents indicated they still rely on word-of-mouth, 31.34 percent also turn to YouTube review videos, 11.47 percent take advantage of augmented-reality tools, and 9.22 percent use AI experiences to collect product information and insights.</li>
<li>Product information or reviews on a retailer’s website are considered the most important factor in an online purchase decision (37.85 percent).</li>
<li>Barriers to buying from the manufacturer were cited as inconsistent pricing (60.46 percent), lack of info on delivery, returns, poor UX, and poor checkout experience.</li>
<li>The majority of survey respondents (76.6 percent) indicated they abandon a website with poor UX in less than two minutes. As many as 37 percent of respondents move on after less than one minute.</li>
</ul>
To read the free report, visit <a href="https://hello.siteimprove.com/en-us/content/report/consumerreport">https://hello.siteimprove.com/en-us/content/report/consumerreport</a>.
<h3>Contentful Helps Businesses Build Digital Experiences Faster With New Compose + Launch Apps</h3>
<a href="https://www.contentful.com/">Contentful</a>, a leading content platform for digital business, <a href="https://www.contentful.com/blog/2021/03/16/launch-compose-release/">announced</a> the release of Contentful Compose + Launch – two apps that, together, significantly extend Contentful’s native capabilities for content teams.
Compose structures content into blocks, so it’s reusable across various digital experiences and channels. Compose was explicitly designed for non-technical users who prefer a more traditional content management system environment.
Launch enhances the ability of content teams to plan and schedule releases. Content pieces can be viewed together, managed as one project, and scheduled to publish in a flexible manner. Teams can easily manage and deliver content as part of large campaigns, such as a Black Friday sale or new product announcements. And campaign managers can use Launch to plan the release of content from a single destination, allowing teams to collaborate better and deliver faster.
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/03/contentful-content-schedule.jpg" alt="Contentful content schedule screen" /></figure>
To learn more about Compose + Launch, click <a href="https://www.contentful.com/blog/2021/03/16/launch-compose-release/">here</a>.
<h3>WordPress Releases Enhancements to Its Reusable Blocks with WordPress 5.7</h3>
WordPress officially released <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/02/wordpress-5-7-release-candidate/">WordPress 5.7</a> on March 9, 2021 – and as its first major release of 2021, it’s packed with a ton of new features and fixes.
Included in the update are several enhancements that make <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/02/gutenberg-tutorial-reusable-blocks/">reusable blocks</a> more stable and easier to use. And now, they save automatically with the post when you click the “Update” button.
Reusable blocks have been a fixture in WordPress for quite some time. They are basically component blocks you can create and save – and use later in any post or page on a website. These blocks can be anything from a testimonial on your homepage, a “Subscribe to My Newsletter” box, a contact form, a survey, and more.
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/03/add-a-reusable-block.gif" alt="Wordpress adding re-usable block animated gif" /></figure>
To see the full list of features and updates that come with WordPress 5.7, visit the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/wordpress-version/version-5-7/">WordPress support page</a>.

CMS Monthly Recap: Crownpeak Acquires e-Spirit, Squarespace Raises $300M Investment, WP Engine Launches Headless for WordPress, and More

Optimizely (formerly Episerver), a leading Digital Experience Platform, <a href="https://www.episerver.com/company/press-room/optimizely-strengthens-its-digital-experience-leadership-with-acquisition-of-customer-data-platform-zaius">announced today that it has acquired Zaius</a>, a Customer Data Platform (CDP).
The announcement comes just months after the company’s <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/episerver-to-acquire-optimizely-the-worlds-leading-experience-optimization-platform/">acquisition of Optimizely</a> last September, which led to <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/episerver-rebrands-as-optimizely-following-acquisition/">Episerver's rebranding</a> of its entire organization under the Optimizely banner.
“At Zaius, we’ve always believed that having the customer’s context was the unfair advantage to creating the most relevant experiences for customers,” said Spencer Pingry, co-founder and co-CEO of Zaius. “Analytics, segmentation, predictions, and personalization fueled by this context lead to experiences that drive customer loyalty. We are proud of how that has created growth for our customers and partners, and look forward to joining Optimizely to expand that story.”
<h3>The race for customer data</h3>
As enterprise content management (CMS) and digital experience (DXP) platforms battle for market share, customer data has become an almost essential component in the fight. With the purchase of Zaius, Optimizely is now positioned with a data-driven stack of services that will power digital experiences for customers – and elevate their competitive posture.
Breaking down "data silos" has become a critical objective for many organizations. According to <a href="https://learn.segment.com/customer-data-platform-report-2021/">Segment’s 2021 CDP Report</a>, 73% of companies say that a CDP will be instrumental to their customer experience strategy. Based on the metrics detailed in the report, 2020 saw exponential growth in customer data – and that only appears to be growing.
DXPs have recognized this problem, and are now making rapid progress towards unifying their data. For example, in the CDP layer of the stack, Segment is connecting customer data from fragmented corners of the ecosystem. This is why Twilio dropped a whopping $3.2 billion to <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/twilio-acquires-segment-for-3-2b-adds-market-leading-cdp-for-building-data-driven-apps/">acquire Segment</a> for building and powering data-driven apps.
Likewise, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/adobe-experience-cloud-adds-new-headless-cms-capabilities-updates-to-commerce-integration/">Adobe has invested</a> heavily in the customer data column, enhancing their platform capabilities for creating personalized, app-like experiences that leverage customer data from end to end. And most recently, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-acquires-boxever-and-four51/">Sitecore acquired Boxever</a> – adding a proven CDP to their ecosystem.
<h3>Combining DXP and CDP capabilities</h3>
Optimizely lost little time catching up with the other big platforms (like Adobe), acknowledging that organizations can no longer rely on third-party customer data to personalize experiences. With Zaius, Optimizely will be able to bridge what has traditionally been disconnected data points and bring them into context with one another.
In addition to being data-driven, Optimizely aspires to be customer-centric. With Zaius, they will now be able to segment customer data in combination with their interactions, observe behaviors through experiments, and gain powerful insights. Having a complete understanding of all those factors will enable Optimizely’s customers to create hyper-personalized experiences and maximize their ROIs.
Zaius’s segmentation engine – coupled with Optimizely’s behavioral data from experiments and transactional insights from its content and commerce platform – will provide a new level of agility. Powered by out-of-the-box AI/ML predictions, the combined platform can unlock even more value by providing visibility and guidance through the lens of the customer.
Zaius also brings 50 pre-built app connectors to Optimizely – including <a href="https://www.shopify.com/">Shopify</a>, <a href="https://www.snowflake.com/">Snowflake</a>, and <a href="https://www.zendesk.com/">Zendesk</a> – which are available as one-click integrations. These connectors rapidly streamline the data integration process and automate identity resolution with consent management.
<h3>A Leader on the Gartner MQ for DXP</h3>
Optimizely has been recognized as a Leader for the second consecutive year in the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/key-takeaways-from-gartners-2021-magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms/">Gartner 2021 Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms</a>, trailing right behind Adobe and <a href="https://www.acquia.com/">Acquia</a>.
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img style="max-width:600px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/s_34fafa0fd97f0b313e9551a1a563ae47406307c485dcb3a22cab4c5d6a2125fe_1616432299291_figure_1_magic_quadrant_for_digital_experience_platforms.png" /></figure>
While the players have shifted positions from 2020, the crop of leaders has made significant investments or acquisitions in customer data platforms to compete more effectively.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Salesforce has been gaining ground against DXPs in the Challenger quadrant. As the world’s leading CRM and customer data platform, they have elevated their position by addressing key deficiencies on the experience and content management side – which includes the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/salesforce-cms-review-evolving-a-crm-powerhouse-into-a-dxp-challenger/">launch of their own CMS</a> in late 2019.
<h3>What's next for Optimizely and Zaius</h3>
With the purchase of Zaius, Optimizely has fully stacked their deck – adding the all-important customer data piece to the puzzle. As they begin to integrate the core capabilities into their platform offering, it's conceivable that they may give Acquia and Adobe a run for their money in next year's MQ report.
As 2021 continues to unfold, we'll be watching the impact of this investment and how it continues to shape Optimizely's strategy.
<h3>About Optimizely (Episerver)</h3>
<a href="http://www.optimizely.com/">Optimizely</a> (Episerver) is on a mission to help people unlock their digital potential. With their leading digital experience platform (DXP), they equip teams with the tools and insights they need to create and optimize in new and novel ways. Now, companies can operate with data-driven confidence to create hyper-personalized experiences. Building sophisticated solutions has never been simpler. Optimizely’s 900+ partners and 1100+ employees in offices around the globe are proud to help more than 9,000 brands, including Toyota, Santander, eBay, KLM, and Mazda, enrich their customer lifetime value, increase revenue and grow their brands.
<h3>About Zaius</h3>
Zaius is the Activated Customer Data Platform that assists growing brands to achieve higher customer lifetime value by delivering relevance across the entire customer journey, from anonymous browsers to loyal shoppers. Zaius aligns entire organizations around customer data allowing digital leaders to create relevant customer experiences through harmonization of their data, understanding and action that differentiates their brand and drives customer loyalty.

Optimizely Acquires Customer Data Platform Zaius

Salesforce CMS Review: Evolving a CRM Powerhouse into a DXP Challenger

Desktop, tablet, and mobile Interface images of Salesforce CMS

<a href="https://www.hyland.com/en">Hyland</a>, an enterprise content management (ECM) and process management provider, has <a href="https://news.hyland.com/hyland-enters-into-agreement-for-the-acquisition-of-nuxeo">signed an agreement</a> providing for exclusive negotiations to acquire <a href="https://www.nuxeo.com/">Nuxeo</a> – a content services and digital asset management (DAM) platform.
A leading ECM provider, Hyland is best known for its <a href="https://www.onbase.com/en">Onbase</a> and <a href="https://www.hyland.com/en/perceptive">Perceptive</a> content management products, which securely centralize enterprise content and deliver relevant information to users across a wide variety of industries – including healthcare, finance, insurance, higher education, and manufacturing.
Nuxeo offers a cloud-native, open-source, low-code platform with content services and DAM capabilities, among others.
“We’ve innovated an entirely modern platform that provides both enterprise-class content services and digital asset management capabilities," said Eric Barroca, CEO of Nuxeo. "And we look forward to bringing these capabilities to the Hyland portfolio as well as leveraging Hyland’s considerable global resources to deliver even greater success to our customers and partners."
<h3>A Leader on the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms</h3>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/03/figure_1_magic_quadrant_for_content_services_platforms.png" alt="Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms" style="max-width:570px" /></figure>
Hyland has been a consistent force in the ECM and content services landscape, commanding the second-place position in the Leader Quadrant of <a href="https://www.hyland.com/en/explore/gartner-magic-quadrant-for-content-services-platforms">Gartner’s 2020 Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms</a>.
While Hyland has been trailing right behind <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/12/08/over-200-million-users-rely-on-sharepoint-as-microsoft-is-again-recognized-as-a-leader-in-the-2020-gartner-content-services-platforms-magic-quadrant-report/#:~:text=Leading%20in%20the%20Gartner%20Content,Platforms%20Magic%20Quadrant%20for%202020.">Microsoft’s 365 platform</a> (fueled primarily by <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/sharepoint/collaboration">Sharepoint</a>), they were also being followed closely by <a href="https://www.alfresco.com/">Alfresco</a>, a fast-growing open-source content services platform that was gaining ground in the market but still viewed as a somewhat niche solution by large enterprises.
Following suit with many other CMS and DXP platforms in the last year, Hyland <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/hyland-acquires-alfresco-focuses-on-cloud-and-global-expansion-of-enterprise-cms/">acquired Alfresco</a> in 2020, eliminating their next closest competitor and changing the game in the leadership grid.
While buying a competitor is far from novel, Alfresco’s low-code tools – combined with its ability to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) services from <a href="https://www.alfresco.com/ecm-software/aws">cloud providers like AWS</a> – were likely key factors in Hyland's decision, enabling them to accelerate their modernization efforts.
<h3>Adding Nuxeo's low-code AI service and DAM capabilities</h3>
With the Nuxeo acquisition, Hyland is consuming another competitor – this time from the Visionary quadrant of Gartner's MQ for Content Services Platforms.
Nuxeo brings some unique assets to Hyland that may translate into significant advantages against Microsoft and Sharepoint. First, it gains <a href="https://www.nuxeo.com/content-services-platform/ai/">Nuxeo Insight</a> – an AI offering that enables customers to use their own data and content to train custom ML models for a variety of business applications. This includes enriching content with metadata, classifying people, products and records, automating forms processing, and more.
The critical advantage with Nuxeo Insight is that it generates ML models that are trained with a customer’s own data – rendering them far more accurate and insightful than typical AI services offered through public clouds (like AWS).
Nuxeo is also known for its strong enterprise <a href="https://www.nuxeo.com/solutions/dam-digital-asset-management/">DAM capabilities</a>, which provide out-of-the-box solutions for enterprises. Additionally, its large-scale repository – which includes NoSQL and distributed file system options – provides storage and scalability support for organizations with a large number of documents.
In fact, last year, Nuxeo proved its scalability performance with an <a href="https://benchmarks.nuxeo.com/11-billion-benchmark-story/">11-billion-object benchmark test</a> on AWS.
<h3>What does the Nuxeo acquisition mean for Hyland?</h3>
Considering some of Hyland’s core industry verticals – specifically finance – Nuxeo may be well worth the investment. Along with its cloud-native, low-code solutions, Nuxeo's open source community and AI-driven capabilities address key gaps in Hyland's modernization strategy, and will likely be a source of continued product innovation.
The transaction is expected to close in April 2021. Until that time, both companies will continue to operate as two companies. Upon transaction close, Nuxeo's business will be integrated into Hyland.
<h3>About Nuxeo</h3>
<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3043355-1&amp;h=141805745&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nuxeo.com%2F%3Futm_source%3DPRNewswire%26utm_medium%3Dpress%2520release%26utm_campaign%3Dhitrust&amp;a=Nuxeo">Nuxeo</a>, the developer of the leading Content Services Platform, is reinventing <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3043355-1&amp;h=1356444015&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nuxeo.com%2Fproducts%2Fenterprise-content-management%2F%3Futm_source%3DPRNewswire%26utm_medium%3Dpress%2520release%26utm_campaign%3Dhitrust&amp;a=enterprise+content+management">enterprise content management</a> (ECM) and <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3043355-1&amp;h=3747046695&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nuxeo.com%2Fproducts%2Fdigital-asset-management%2F%3Futm_source%3DPRNewswire%26utm_medium%3Dpress%2520release%26utm_campaign%3Dhitrust&amp;a=digital+asset+management">digital asset management</a> (DAM). Nuxeo makes it easy to build smart content applications that enhance customer experiences, improve decision making, and accelerate products to market. Its cloud-native, low-code platform has been deployed by large enterprises worldwide. Customers like Electronic Arts, TBWA, ABN AMRO, and CVS have used Nuxeo's technology to transform the way they do business. Founded in 2000, the company is based in New York with offices across the United States, Europe, and Asia. Learn more at <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3043355-1&amp;h=1092214406&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nuxeo.com%2F%3Futm_source%3DPRNewswire%26utm_medium%3Dpress%2520release%26utm_campaign%3Dhitrust&amp;a=www.nuxeo.com">www.nuxeo.com</a>.
<h3>About Hyland</h3>
<a href="https://www.hyland.com/">Hyland</a> is an enterprise content management (ECM) software platform, combining integrated document management, business process management, and records management in a single application. Hyland software allows organizations to manage, control, and share digital content with employees, business partners, customers, and other constituencies. Learn more at <a href="https://www.hyland.com/en">www.hyland.com</a>

Hyland Enters Agreement to Acquire Nuxeo

While the typical fanfare of a Las Vegas convention has been on a losing streak in the age of Covid, virtual events have emerged as a winning surrogate – especially for software companies looking to cultivate their user communities and make big announcements.
That was the case last week at <a href="https://gatsbyconf.com/">GatsbyConf 2021</a>, a free two-day meeting held by <a href="https://www.gatsbyjs.com/">Gatsby</a>. While the biggest news on the table was the unveiling of <a href="https://gatsbyjs.com/docs/reference/release-notes/v3.0">Gatsby v3.0</a>, our editorial team sat through a number of sessions, and we’ll cover some of the high points in this article.
Pandemic travel blues aside, the creators of the open-source JavaScript website framework <a href="https://github.com/gatsbyjs/gatsby">GatsbyJS</a> have been on a meteoric rise – <a href="https://www.gatsbyjs.com/blog/2020-05-27-announcing-series-b-funding/">raising $28 million</a> in Series B funding in 2020. This investment has certainly helped fuel their growth, but Gatsby’s thriving community of users is what's helping to shape their future.
What was clear during GatsbyConf is that Gatsby is listening to their base. This is reflected in the newly released v3.0, which sports several new features users have been pining for. This includes incremental builds for faster deployment and new image optimization capabilities that improve website speed and performance.
But that’s not all. Gatsby also announced the addition of <a href="https://www.gatsbyjs.com/products/cloud/hosting/">Gatsby Hosting</a> to its <a href="https://www.gatsbyjs.com/cloud/">Gatsby Cloud</a>, offering a true, end-to-end platform. Now, users can build websites and fully deploy on Gatsby Cloud – complete with a CDN – all without having to rely on a third-party provider.
<h3>The static site revolution</h3>
A bit of backdrop always helps – and with Gatsby, that backdrop is short. And on fire.
GatsbyJS was born in 2015 with a simple mission: make it easy for users to create a website with <a href="https://reactjs.org/">React</a>, a Javascript library for building user interfaces. In just a few short years, the platform has seen tens of thousands of developers flock to their open-source community, leveraging Gatsby as the go-to static site generator for creating a wide range of web experiences – from basic blogs to rich e-Commerce applications.
Gatsby’s React-based framework is built on the <a href="https://bejamas.io/blog/jamstack/?utm_source=thenewstack&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=platform">JAMstack</a> (Javascript, APIs, and markup) and leverages a number of modern web technologies such as GraphQL. As a static site generator, Gatsby uses static files to build websites in the browser – not on the server – as a user enters each page.
By abstracting the database from the equation, Gatsby provides a lightweight website that takes less time to build and maintain – and delivers a lightning-fast load. With speed becoming one of the most important measures for a website’s performance, Gatsby has been powering websites with a competitive edge that reduces bounce rates while improving the overall customer experience.
<h3>Unifying developers and marketers</h3>
The battle between developers and marketers has been waged since the dawn of the modern web. Regularly at odds, Gatsby is focused on uniting the disparate realms – and this was the subject of several discussions during the conference.
"Our mission is to raise the quality of websites and the web by providing developers and marketers with the best tools,” said the Gatsby CEO Kyle Mathews. “We believe that great user experience depends on developers and marketers having great tools and workflows to rapidly collaborate on improving the user experience”
At GatsbyConf, there was talk about rich web experiences being the new norm and how teams of marketers, designers, and developers need to work both quickly and collaboratively to create websites that have great content – but also perform at the highest levels.
"It is not just developers who are building sites,” said Dustin Shau, VP of Product at Gatsby. “The interplay between developers and marketers is a key one to keep top of mind, and this is squarely the challenge we are trying to solve with Gatsby.”
<h3>A new era for headless CMS</h3>
To power the front end, Gatsby’s static websites rely on headless CMS platforms to manage content – providing the perfect marriage of lightweight frontend and backend capabilities.
For the unindoctrinated, a headless CMS is a backend-only content management system that behaves more like a content repository. It allows users to author content without being tied to a specific output – like, say, a rendered web page. Instead, it decouples the “head” and allows the CMS to display content on any device or presentation layer via API. This includes static site generators like Gatsby.
This blend of technologies gives developers the ability to create and deploy faster with incremental builds and collaborate on code. Meanwhile, marketers can use a headless CMS to make content edits, preview their changes, share them with their colleagues for feedback and publish when approved – all while gaming the speed and power of a static frontend.
As the landscape of headless and decoupled CMS players continues to expand, so too have the opportunities for Gatsby. They offer support for a number of <a href="https://www.gatsbyjs.com/docs/how-to/sourcing-data/headless-cms/">headless CMS services</a>, including <a href="https://ghost.org/pricing/">Ghost</a> and <a href="https://prismic.io/">Prismic</a> – and now feature a <a href="https://www.gatsbyjs.com/plugins/gatsby-source-wordpress/">WordPress Source plugin</a>.
On the e-Commerce side, Gatsby also has a <a href="https://www.gatsbyjs.com/plugins/gatsby-source-shopify/">Shopify Source Plugin</a> for pulling data into Gatsby from Shopify stores using the <a href="https://shopify.dev/docs/storefront-api">Shopify Storefront API</a>.
Back in October, Gatsby also <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/contentstack-and-gatsby-announce-partnership-to-power-ultra-fast-websites-with-headless-cms/">partnered with Contentstack</a>, a market-leading headless Content Experience Platform. The co-mingling enabled Contentstack to offer blazing-fast websites and applications on their CMS platform while allowing organizations to better unify their marketing and development teams through the unique collaboration.
<h3>Highlights from GatsbyConf 2021</h3>
With Gatsby v3.0 taking up most of the air, here are some of the big-ticket features that were covered during the event:
<ul>
<li>80% speed improvement in local development experience via incremental builds: Gatsby v3.0 uses incremental builds – meaning every time a site is changed, Gatsby only re-builds the parts that have been updated as opposed to the entire site. Waiting for every image and page to be processed in the development session made the building process more laborious, especially for large, media-rich websites.</li>
</ul>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img style="max-width:700px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/03/incremental-build.jpg" alt="gatsby incremental build diagram" /></figure>
<ul>
<li>Intelligent caching in the Gatsby Cloud: Together with incremental builds, Gatsby Cloud uses intelligent caching and a real-time edge network to dramatically reduce the time spent waiting for deployments.</li>
<li>Better performance and a higher Lighthouse score: Websites built with Gatsby already have a solid reputation for being fast – and it’s mostly due to Gatsby’s image optimization feature. With v3.0, Gatsby graduated the <a href="https://www.gatsbyjs.com/docs/reference/built-in-components/gatsby-plugin-image/">gatsby-plugin-image</a> feature from BETA to general availability. The plugin takes advantage of the latest improvements in browser technology and image file formats. The API is also simpler and easier to learn, which streamlines the entire process.</li>
<li>Gatsby Hosting: After listening to user feedback on incremental builds in Gatsby Cloud, it was clear there was a bottleneck for publishing updates. With <a href="https://www.gatsbyjs.com/blog/introducing-gatsby-cloud-hosting">Gatsby Hosting</a>, this problem is all but resolved. By partnering with <a href="https://www.fastly.com/">Fastly</a>, a content delivery network (CDN) provider turned edge cloud company, Gatsby added a secure global CDN that both accelerates deployment time and content serving to customers.</li>
<li>Additional developer and admin features: Gatsby also added tools and resources in Gatsby Cloud to make managing websites even easier, including custom domains, SSL certificates, and Workspaces.</li>
<li>Upgrades to core dependencies: Last but not least, Gatsby bumped their core dependencies to the latest stable versions, including Node 12, Webpack 5, React 17, GrapQL 15, and ESLint 7. These upgrades will eliminate bugs that people may encounter with older versions and unlock new features Gatsby can leverage in future updates.</li>
</ul>
It’s worth noting Gatsby’s choice of GraphQL, which is typically used by large-scale enterprise CMS and DXP platforms. Most recently, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/adobe-experience-cloud-adds-new-headless-cms-capabilities-updates-to-commerce-integration/">Adobe added GraphQL for headless content delivery</a>. GraphQL might be seen as “overkill” for Gatsby, but using GraphQL makes it much easier to see where data is coming from – and how to change it.
<h3>What’s next for Gatsby?</h3>
As CEO Kyle Mathews noted, great user experience depends on both developers and marketers having great tools – and the ability to collaborate and ideate quickly.
While GatsbyConf 2021 was a springboard for highlighting their latest accomplishments, it’s clear that one of Gatsby’s strongest assets is their community of users – and this includes both developers and marketers. By listening and engaging, they’ve been able to focus their improvements on key areas that will have a real impact on customer satisfaction.
The JAMstack is getting jam-packed with static site generators, including <a href="https://nextjs.org/">Next.js</a>, <a href="https://gohugo.io/">Hugo</a>, <a href="https://jekyllrb.com/">Jekyll</a>, and others – many of which are deployable to <a href="https://www.netlify.com/">Netlify</a> and instantly connectable to Github. As these competitors build niche communities of developers, service may become one of the key differentiators for Gatsby. They have already demonstrated their commitment to listening to the voice of the customer – and this will serve them well in the future.
If you haven’t tried out Gatsby yet, you can <a href="https://www.gatsbyjs.com/get-started/">sign up for free</a>. If you’re wondering how to upgrade from v2 to v3, Gatsby also provides a <a href="https://www.gatsbyjs.com/docs/reference/release-notes/migrating-from-v2-to-v3">v2 to v3 migration guide</a>.
<h3>About Gatsby</h3>
Gatsby, Inc. is the creator of GatsbyJS, the leading JAMstack frontend framework and static site generator for React. GatsbyJS enables organizations to build highly performant, secure websites that can integrate data from multiple content management systems and other end points using its unique content hub architecture. Gatsby offers <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=QsxpV3REm_gUHc0XrS8P_S-GvX_OgybDXJdd8yqDpE6HOXoszjUf6SoxitACU4HmmFrtFAS_DBY1k8pbTdmgW0fP3gVcsP5YSO9k4jwpMOU=">Gatsby Cloud</a>, a turnkey SaaS solution for building, previewing, deploying and managing Gatsby-based websites plus support and professional services to help organizations build modern websites. GatsbyJS is used in industries including financial services, retail, ecommerce, hospitality, SaaS and gaming by companies, including Venmo, Little Caesars, Braun, Raleigh, Quip, Figma, Meetup, Headspace, Draft Kings and Nintendo. Gatsby, Inc. is funded by Index Ventures, CRV and Trinity Ventures. Visit <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=bdzydamtROY_gZXyiFdp7LM7Gh5xQZSp3EzX2cCGHcES9KWcf2X2nnmDE7YpGur-e7ZLlbuQcQcYsXePXH0Ihg==">www.gatsbyjs.com</a> to learn more.

Gatsby Unveils v3.0, Cloud Hosting, and More at GatsbyConf 2021

Another week, another big twist in the enterprise CMS and DXP battle for market dominance.
This time, it’s Sitecore making waves, proving there’s only one thing better than acquiring a strategic company – and that’s buying two at the same time.
Just weeks after unveiling a <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-embarks-on-1-2b-investment-plan-to-accelerate-growth/">$1.2 billion investment plan</a> to fund innovation and accelerate growth, Sitecore <a href="https://www.sitecore.com/company/news-events/press-releases/2021/03/sitecore-acquires-boxever-and-four51">announced</a> it has entered into definitive agreements to acquire <a href="https://www.boxever.com/">Boxever</a>, a SaaS-based Customer Data Platform (CDP) providing decisioning and experimentation, and <a href="https://four51.io/">Four51</a>, a digital commerce pioneer that powers custom, highly scalable e-commerce B2B marketplace solutions.
When Sitecore originally announced its daring yet elusive investment plan in mid-January, there was a great deal of speculation about their strategy. Very little was revealed about how the funds would be used, or if any acquisitions were on the horizon.
With this move, Sitecore has answered a big part of the market's questions – and positioned themselves to better compete at the top with the likes of <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-digital-commerce-unifies-data-content-commerce-and-digital-merchandising/">Acquia</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/episerver-to-acquire-optimizely-the-worlds-leading-experience-optimization-platform/">Optimizely</a> (formerly Episerver), and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/adobe-experience-cloud-adds-new-headless-cms-capabilities-updates-to-commerce-integration/">Adobe</a>.
<h3>Adding Customer Data Platform (CDP) capabilities</h3>
One of the gaps that every CMS and DXP is racing to address exists around customer data. As brands and organizations demand greater personalization to optimize value and loyalty throughout the buying cycle, customer data is fueling the experience management engine – and having a CDP strategy is no longer a luxury, but a necessity.
Boxever has been on a roll with its CDP offering. The platform provides a rich, 360-degree view of customers with advanced segmentation, real-time decisioning, and experimentation capabilities. The system acts as the “brain” within an organization’s marketing stack, rendering every customer interaction more relevant and engaging.
With Boxever’s multi-dimensional capabilities, Sitecore will be able to enhance customer intelligence with AI-driven personalization tools, making it easy to capture, unify and activate customer data and deliver personalized experiences at scale.
<h3>Elevating headless e-commerce</h3>
As the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated digital transformation, brands discovered <a href="https://www.historyofheadlesscommerce.com/">headless commerce</a> – and leaned on its extensible framework to rapidly power their omnichannel strategies.
Four51’s API-first, headless e-commerce solution enables organizations to quickly and easily deliver engaging shopping experiences, helping them improve customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy.
According to Sitecore, Four51’s feature set will complement their existing B2C commerce capabilities, enabling them to define the digital experience market in new ways. Additionally, the combined offering will require less upfront investment, with a horizon of continuous innovation and a dramatically shorter time to value.
<h3>Competing in a growing field of Digital Experience Platforms</h3>
For Sitecore, the pandemic has highlighted the need for a flexible and modern Digital Experience Platform (DXP) to provide organizations with both agility and intelligence to keep pace with changing demands.
While CMS platforms have begun to migrate their capabilities to meet the definition of a DXP, the goalposts continue to move – driven by rapidly accelerating innovation and consolidation.
Like its competitors, Sitecore recognizes the gaps and is making bold moves to shore them up. By integrating Boxever and Four51 with their proven suite of capabilities, Sitecore will be positioned to deliver a true content-to-commerce, SaaS-based DXP.
The resulting solution would enable businesses to deliver real-time, personalized digital experiences across every touchpoint, including the full buying cycle from order fulfillment to service beyond the sale. Technical organizations will also get an open stack built for modern architectures, with applications that are more intelligent, agile and always up-to-date.
<h3>Buyer’s remorse?</h3>
In their announcement, Sitecore acknowledged the skepticism surrounding the recent trend of acquisitions and consolidations in the marketing technology sector.
Still, the CDP train seems unstoppable. Gartner has <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3983209/market-guide-for-customer-data-platforms">predicted</a> that “70% of independent CDP vendors will be acquired by larger marketing technology vendors or will diversify through M&amp;A of their own to enter adjacent categories such as personalization, multichannel marketing, consent management, and/or MDM for customer data.”
But is all this activity paying off? Unfortunately, the data suggests that most of these strategic acquisitions have left customers feeling disappointed with the feature sets, particularly around personalization.
In fact, Gartner has further <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-12-02-gartner-predicts-80--of-marketers-will-abandon-person">predicted</a> that 80% of marketers who have invested in personalization will abandon their efforts due to the lack of ROI and distrust from consumers due to growing privacy issues. <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/03/google-says-it-wont-track-you-directly-in-the-future-as-it-phases-out-cookies.html">Google’s recent news</a> that it will phase out browser cookies for ads is the latest sign that the data privacy landscape is changing rapidly, and the impact on personalization will continue to evolve.
<h3>Consistent positioning from Gartner and Forrester</h3>
With the acquisition of Boxever and Four51, Sitecore is hoping to do more than just stay in the game – they clearly want to uplevel it. Perhaps these two pieces to the puzzle will prove highly advantageous to their near and long-term goals by offering a SaaS-based, API-first Digital Experience Platform that expands the breadth of their data and commerce capabilities.
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img style="max-width:600px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/01/gartner-magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms-2021.png" alt="Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms-2021" /></figure>
Recently, both Gartner and Forrester issued their 2021 reports for enterprise DXP and CMS. While Sitecore celebrated its fourth year in a row as a Leader on <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/key-takeaways-from-gartners-2021-magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms/">Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for DXPs</a>, it fell slightly behind both Acquia and Episerver (now Optimizely).
<a href="https://www.contentful.com/resources/forrester-wave-agile-cms-2021-report/">Forrester’s Q1 Wave Report for Agile CMSes</a> paints a similar picture. Since 2019, Sitecore has elevated its Strong Performer status, now straddling the fence of the Leaders circle with a wider market presence. But like the Gartner MQ, they are lagging behind Acquia and Optimizely – with Adobe maintaining its clear dominance in the category.
<h3>The impact of the CDP revolution</h3>
The recent announcement from Sitecore codified one thing: that CMS and DXP platforms are feverishly racing to add CDP to their core offerings.
According to <a href="https://learn.segment.com/customer-data-platform-report-2021/">Segment’s industry report</a> released last month, 73% of companies reported that a CDP will be critical to their customer experience, and integrating that capability can enhance the value of a content management or digital experience platform.
As a side note, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/twilio-acquires-segment-for-3-2b-adds-market-leading-cdp-for-building-data-driven-apps/">Segment was acquired by Twilio</a> in November 2020 for $3.2 billion. This move further demonstrates that CDPs are broadly viewed as a strategic acquisition for a multitude of technology platforms – particularly in a COVID-19 world where organizations require more access to data-driven tools to grow and compete.
The explosive growth in this category is made abundantly clear in the graph below:
<img style="max-width:700px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/03/segment-cdp-report-data-1024x695.png" alt="Segment cdp report data" />
<h3>What’s next for Sitecore?</h3>
They say timing is everything. When Sitecore announced their ambitious investment plan, it was just the latest in a high-intensity cycle of headlines from across the martech stack – and may have been perceived as a response to other newsworthy activities.
Unlike their rivals, the lack of clarity around their $1.2 billion investment stirred questions about their market goals, compounded by growing competitive friction and setbacks. But behind the scenes, they clearly had their sights set on key acquisitions that would accelerate their growth and address the aforementioned gaps in their strategy.
With the integration of Boxever and Four51, Sitecore can now deliver what the market needs: industry-leading content and customer data management, omnichannel delivery, headless commerce, testing, journey optimization, and more. With these capabilities in their toolkit, they are better positioned to compete at the top of the market.
The acquisitions are expected to close before the end of March 2021, and financial terms are not being disclosed. Upon completion, the CEOs of both Boxever and Four51 will take on leadership roles – and Sitecore expects to invest and expand in both Boxever's Dublin, Ireland and Four51’s Minneapolis, Minnesota locations.
Now, which marketing technology vendor is bold enough to score a hat trick... and buy three companies at once?
<h3>About Sitecore</h3>
Sitecore delivers a digital experience platform (DXP) that empowers the world’s smartest brands to build lifelong relationships with their customers. A highly decorated industry leader, Sitecore is the only company bringing together content, commerce, and data into one connected platform that delivers millions of digital experiences every day. Leading companies including American Express, ASOS, Carnival Cruise Lines, Kimberly-Clark, L’Oréal, and Volvo Cars rely on Sitecore to provide more engaging, personalized experiences for their customers. Learn more at <a href="https://www.sitecore.com/">Sitecore.com</a>.

Sitecore Acquires Boxever and Four51

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Shopify - The global commerce platform

Build your business with Shopify to sell online, offline, and everywhere in between.

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Adobe is introducing new features to its Adobe Experience Cloud, including headless content management system (CMS) capabilities in their industry-leading <a href="https://www.adobe.com/marketing/experience-manager.html">Adobe Experience Manager</a> (AEM) and updates to their Commerce Integration Framework (CIF).
The features were announced at the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOVtXt-xx4c&amp;ab_channel=AdobeDevelopers">Adobe Developers Live</a> Conference, giving their community a first glimpse of how these dynamic enhancements will streamline the development of headless content delivery via GraphQL APIs, as well as enable users to create shoppable, app-like experiences that combine content and commerce.
The announcements were made just as the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/key-takeaways-from-gartners-2021-magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms/">Gartner 2021 Magic Quadrant for DXPs</a> and the <a href="https://go.forrester.com/blogs/agile-cms-moves-the-market-beyond-headless-forresters-just-released-wave-evaluation/">2021 Forrester Wave for Agile CMSes</a> were being released. Both reports position Adobe as the top vendor, and the addition of these new features reinforces their leadership role in a rapidly-evolving market landscape.
<h3>What is Adobe Experience Cloud?</h3>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/03/adobe-journey-diagram.png" alt="Adobe Journey Diagram" />
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Adobe Experience Cloud is a comprehensive collection of integrated cloud applications and services that give enterprises the best-of-breed tools for marketing, analytics, advertising, and commerce. Adobe Experience Cloud also integrates with <a href="https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud.html">Adobe Creative Cloud</a>, which features an industry-standard suite of digital publishing and experience design tools – including <a href="https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html">Photoshop</a>.
Heading up the Leader quadrant of this year's Gartner MQ, Adobe reigns over the DXP landscape. Over the course of 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic elevated competition across the enterprise marketplace, forcing the CMS and DXP industries to accelerate their own transformation goals.
Adobe has remained in a solid leadership position because of its ubiquitous brand presence and continued commitment to innovation. The most recent enhancements to Adobe Experience Cloud reflect current market trends and elevated demand for headless and API-driven strategies – as well as a heightened need for integrating with customer data.
So, what’s new with Adobe Experience Cloud?
<h3>New Headless CMS Capabilities</h3>
Headless platforms have seen a dramatic rise in the CMS and DXP enterprise market over the last few years. This includes <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/contentstack-and-gatsby-announce-partnership-to-power-ultra-fast-websites-with-headless-cms/">Contentstack</a> – which was positioned as a <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/company/press/forrester-named-contentstack-strong-performer-agile-cms/?utm_source=facebook&amp;utm_medium=organic_social">Strong Performer</a> on the 2021 Forrester Wave Report for Agile CMSes.
To enable developers to distribute content across multiple touchpoints, Adobe is now introducing <a href="https://graphql.org/">GraphQL APIs</a> for headless content delivery. GraphQL is a data query language developed by Facebook and open-sourced in 2015 and is trusted by many big tech brands – including Pinterest, GitHub, Netflix, Shopify, Twitter, and more.
Facebook initially developed GraphQL because they needed a more powerful data-fetching API for their mobile applications. REST API has its limitations because whenever data requirements change, more endpoints are needed. GraphQL is typically served over HTTP via a single endpoint, which expresses the full set of capabilities of the service without the need for additional endpoints.
GraphQL also makes personalization much easier. For instance, using a REST API to retrieve a customer’s information (like recently viewed products and purchases), you need to send a fetch request for three endpoints: USER, USER_PURCHASE, and RECENTLY_VIEWED. This makes data fetching slow and cumbersome. With GraphQL, all you need to do is fetch the user object to gather all the data.
By leveraging GraphQL, Adobe is giving developers the power to deliver content to any touchpoint and access data across the Adobe ecosystem. For example, a mobile app developer can query marketing content from Adobe Experience Manager and have personalized results sent to the app, which renders in its UI. From there, a marketer can use Adobe Experience Manager’s authoring capabilities to add or edit marketing content across multiple devices and touchpoints – saving time and resources.
Siloing has been a significant problem in experience platforms. In the customer data (CDP) layer of the stack, Segment has been working to unify customer data from fragmented corners of the ecosystem. That’s why Twilio dropped a whopping $3.2 billion to <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/twilio-acquires-segment-for-3-2b-adds-market-leading-cdp-for-building-data-driven-apps/">acquire Segment</a> to build data-driven apps.
Likewise, Adobe has also recognized the deep gaps around siloed data. They are working to enhance their platform capabilities for creating personalized app-like experiences and leverage customer data from end to end.
<h3>Easy Integrations with Commerce Integration Framework</h3>
In addition to the headless capabilities, Adobe Experience Manager can now integrate and extend commerce services from <a href="https://magento.com/">Magento</a> and other commerce solutions through Adobe’s Commerce Integration Framework (CIF). CIF is built on rich APIs that can be easily extended, enabling a seamless storefront authoring experience in Adobe Experience Manager with faster-time-to-market at a lower cost.
Headless is quickly becoming a necessity for commerce platforms because it enables marketers and merchants to deliver world-class commerce experiences without the engineering burden. Nearly all the vendors who earned a place on the Gartner 2021 Magic Quadrant for DXPs offer headless capabilities; in fact, Adobe’s largest competitors – <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-digital-commerce-unifies-data-content-commerce-and-digital-merchandising/">Acquia</a> and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-updates-experience-platform-and-experience-commerce-releases-new-sitecore-content-hub/">Sitecore</a> – have been successfully advancing in the DXP Leaders quadrant by offering a headless play.
<h3>Headless in a hybrid world</h3>
While Adobe’s addition of headless isn’t a shocker, it represents the challenges that CMS and DXP platforms face. Content operators have multiple channels to contend with, and each consumes content in a different way. While one may access HTML, another requires JSON, and so on. These channels are also independent of one another, creating the aforementioned silo effect around content and data.
Adobe has always lead the way in CX and personalization, and headless is essential to every part of their experience ecosystem – specifically commerce. There are significant challenges with maintaining brand, message, and price consistency, as well as the cost of duplicating content from channel to channel. Now, Adobe provides more of a complete solution for managing the chaos.
One of the biggest issues that pure headless platforms face is the ability for content owners and marketers to visualize their channels. Adobe has clearly stated that developers are struggling to deliver cohesive content across every touchpoint (modern web, smartwatches, native apps, etc.) – and the limitations of headless are a big part of the pain.
By offering a hybrid platform, Adobe addresses some of the "multiverse" that exists by bringing websites and applications together with headless capabilities. That said, even Adobe doesn't have a solution for presenting digital signs, IoT devices, or other form factors within their CMS. At least not yet.
The real challenge for Adobe? Staying in the leadership position.

Adobe Experience Cloud Adds Headless CMS Capabilities, Updates to Commerce Integration Framework

Well, it's been another action-packed month in the CMS and DXP worlds, and there's barely time to process the news.
Just as we finished breaking down <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/key-takeaways-from-gartners-2021-magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms/">Gartner's 2021 Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms</a>, the 2021 Forrester Wave for Agile Content Management Systems was released. You can get a copy of the report <a href="https://www.forrester.com/report/The+Forrester+Wave+Agile+Content+Management+Systems+CMSes+Q1+2021/-/E-RES161667">here</a>.
There's a lot to unpack, but the main question is: how do you make sense of both the Gartner and Forrester reports when evaluating a solution? There are similarities and differences to be sure, but the comparisons reveal some bigger things happening across the experience management landscape. We'll have a detailed analysis next week.
<h3>Automattic's WordPress VIP Acquires Parse.ly</h3>
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WordPress VIP (<a href="https://wpvip.com/">WPVIP</a>), Automattic’s WordPress enterprise content management platform, has announced the acquisition of <a href="https://www.parse.ly/">Parse.ly</a> – a real-time content analytics platform designed for content management and e-commerce platforms. The goal is to provide enterprises with content analytics that integrate seamlessly across WPVIP’s commerce and content offerings.
Parse.ly is the first large enterprise software acquisition for Automattic, the parent company of WordPress, Tumblr, and other tech platforms that enable people to publish content to the open web.
Previously, Salesforce made a <a href="https://ma.tt/2019/09/series-d/">$300 million investment</a> in <a href="https://automattic.com/">Automattic</a>. In a post about the transaction, Matt Mullenweg – the founder and CEO of Automattic – said that Salesforce "helped open his eyes to the potential there is in the enterprise market for WordPress VIP."
While the Parse.ly purchase represents a larger enterprise strategy, Automattic is no stranger to acquisitions. One of their most notable, <a href="https://woocommerce.com/posts/woothemes-joins-automattic/">WooCommerce</a>, provided a critical pathway to e-commerce, and had become a well-known brand in the space. On the other side of the stack, they acquired the <a href="https://angel.co/today/stories/automattic-acquires-wordpress-plugin-zbs-crm-4292">ZBS CRM</a>, a customer relationship management plugin for WordPress that enables online retailers using WordPress and WooCommerce to keep track of their customers.
Through Parse.ly, Automattic is elevating the value of enterprise analytics for its customers. Parse.ly uses predictive analytics for content recommendations, driving engagement with personalized experiences for every visitor. It also provides both real-time and historical data.
“We’ve always had a deep admiration for WPVIP as the gold standard for enterprise content teams, and we’re thrilled to join together,” <a href="https://blog.parse.ly/post/9995/wpvip-acquisition/">said Sachin Kamdar</a>, the CEO of Parse.ly. “From the culture and people, to the product, market, and vision, we’re in lockstep to create more value for our customers. This powerful combination of content and intelligence will push the industry forward at an accelerated pace.”
With Parse.ly, WPVIP customers will get much more than basic analytics like page visits and views. Commerce brands will be able to see which content converts visitors into buyers and deliver content recommendations for top-performing products.
<h3>Oracle Announces Cloud Customer Experience Updates</h3>
Oracle <a href="https://www.oracle.com/news/announcement/oracle-cloud-cx-updates-021021.html">announced</a> that it's rolling out updates to its Cloud Customer Experience (CX) platform. The latest updates to the CX suite adds enhancements and capabilities to Oracle Sales, Oracle Service, and Oracle Marketing.
“Customers aren’t afraid to walk away after a single bad experience, and that reality means organizations have to empower their sales, marketing, and customer service teams with the data they need to make every customer interaction matter,” said Rob Tarkoff, executive vice president and general manager, Oracle Customer Experience.
The latest updates within Oracle Customer Experience (CX) include new B2B selling, service, and marketing capabilities.
<ul>
<li>B2B Selling Capabilities: Improve efficiency and accelerate sales cycles by providing a more prescriptive sales experience and removing tedious data entry tasks.</li>
<li>Voice Capabilities: A new digital assistant allows sellers to talk to their CRM system and use voice commands on a mobile device to create follow-up tasks, add an attachment to an account, record an update to an account, and more.</li>
<li>Streamlined Quoting: Sellers now have the ability to search, view, and manage complex quotes on one screen via desktop or a mobile device, eliminating the need to toggle between data and screens.</li>
<li>Communications Industry: A new Buy application in Digital Experience for Communications helps service providers give customers more relevant offers to increase conversion rates. This includes making it easier for customers to buy services via their preferred channels.</li>
<li>Actionable User Interface: Data-driven recommendations help sellers save time and focus their efforts on the strongest opportunities.</li>
<li>Smart Lists: Help guide sellers on what action to take next by automatically displaying relevant information based on past behavior.</li>
<li>Infolets: Enable sellers to quickly accept leads, qualify prospects, rank deals, and create tasks from the home page of their CRM system.</li>
<li>Advanced Search Capabilities: Help sellers quickly and easily locate information related to a sales opportunity, territory, account, and quotes. In addition, Favorites allows users to mark records to save for later.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Siteimprove Releases Upgraded Accessibility Module to Empower Organizations to Meet Increased Digital Experience Expectations</h3>
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Siteimprove, the cloud-based Digital Presence Optimization (DPO) platform, <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210212005296/en/Siteimprove-Releases-Upgraded-Accessibility-Product-to-Empower-Organizations-to-Meet-Increased-Digital-Experience-Expectations">announced</a> the release of the new and improved Siteimprove Accessibility module. The new feature was created <a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/about/projects/wai-tools/">in partnership with the EU Commission and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)</a>.
One of the biggest challenges when it comes to identifying and fixing accessibility issues is the wide array of rules that are constantly changing. Siteimprove solves this problem by actively integrating the new <a href="https://act-rules.github.io/pages/about/">Accessibility Conformance Testing (ACT) rules</a> into their Accessibility module on an ongoing basis.
ACT rules are a growing set of test rules that aim to harmonize the interpretation of W3C accessibility standards, such as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 and Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).
Since WCAG 2.1 requirements can be vague and difficult to read, they are open to interpretation. This makes it challenging for organizations to know whether they have met the legal requirements or not. With the latest approved and confirmed ACT rules at the core of Siteimprove’s Accessibility module, users can expect consistent results and a better understanding of how to work towards meeting the recognized accessibility standards.
The features and benefits that come with the Siteimprove Accessibility module include:
<ul>
<li>Setting site targets to track progress: With the module, you can set a custom target to work towards a specific compliance goal such as Level A, AA, or AAA accessibility compliance. The module also provides an Accessibility Digital Certainty Index (DCI) score, which measures your site’s accessibility compared to other companies in your industry.</li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li>Identify and prioritize issues: By filtering your site’s issues by the page section they are found in – header, footer, metadata, or all other content– you can more easily prioritize the issues that need to be remediated.</li>
<li>Fix issues with easy-to-follow instructions: Quickly review potential accessibility issues using an assisted review flow.</li>
</ul>
You can find out more about Siteimprove’s Accessibility module <a href="https://siteimprove.com/en/accessibility/">here</a>.
<h3>Twilio Segment Releases 2021 CDP Report: A Look at How Pandemic-Driven Digital Acceleration Ushered the Industry into a New Era</h3>
Segment – which was <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/twilio-acquires-segment-for-3-2b-adds-market-leading-cdp-for-building-data-driven-apps/">purchased by Twilio in November of 2020</a> – released their second annual <a href="https://learn.segment.com/customer-data-platform-report-2021/">Customer Data Platform Report</a> (CDP), and it further reinforces the pivotal role of customer data in the future of digital experiences.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an enormous amount of digital transformation at a frenzied pace. Segment's comprehensive report was put together from anonymized usage data from Segment’s 20,000+ customers, portraying the pandemic's impact in staggering numbers.
Based on the metrics detailed in the report, 2020 saw exponential growth in customer data. The volume, velocity, and variety of data being tracked across organizations nearly doubled – and by the end of the year, Segment was processing over 1 trillion API calls a month.
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With the increased adoption of digital channels, 73% of companies report that a CDP will be critical to their customer experience reports.
Segment has been at the forefront of CDP innovation, working to unify customer data from fragmented, isolated silos. As a rule of thumb, data has always been collected and organized in the channel where it was created – and locked away across inaccessible databases.
That all changed in 2020 as Covid-19 shifted consumer behavior. People began jumping across channels as they embraced curbside pickup and telehealth. Remote work also exploded, surfacing the operational inefficiencies of having data spread across disparate systems within an organization.
With Segment, organizations can track event data from a wide range of applications and trigger a multitude of actions. The main types of data flowing through Segment's CDP are coming from four types of sources: Web (Javascript), Mobile (iOS, Android), Server (HTTP API, Node.js, etc.), and Cloud (Stripe, Sendgrid, etc.).
The data from Segment's report illustrates how the customer journey spans across multiple channels, generating millions of events. The insights gleaned from these datapoints and trends are worth their weight in gold – and underscore the value of a CDP as a core component in the modern enterprise stack.
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/twilio-acquires-segment-for-3-2b-adds-market-leading-cdp-for-building-data-driven-apps/">Twilio’s acquisition of Segment</a> ushers in a new era for CDPs, as the market shifts from pure-play data platforms towards integrated customer engagement platforms. We can expect more platforms like Twilio to address their own CDP gap through partnerships or acquisitions as the year unfolds.
You can access Segment's full report <a href="https://learn.segment.com/customer-data-platform-report-2021/">here</a>.

CMS Monthly Recap: WordPress VIP Acquires Parse.ly, Siteimprove Releases Upgrade, Segment's 2021 CDP Report, and More

Key Takeaways from Gartner’s 2021 Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms

Man holding a magnifier to the big DXP letters

A short while after Amazon said hello to <a href="https://tamebay.com/2021/02/amazon-breaks-a-100-billion-quarter-with-record-sales.html#:~:text=Jeff%20Bezos%20chose%20Amazon's%20best,%24100%20billion%20quarter%20sales%20barrier.">$100 billion in a single quarter</a>, it said goodbye to its founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos.
After 30 years, the internet retailer announced that <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/02/jeff-bezos-to-step-down-as-amazon-ceo-andy-jassy-to-take-over-in-q3.html">Bezos would step down</a> as chief executive officer and transition to the role of executive chairman. The plan will take effect in Q3 of 2021, with Bezos continuing to work on initiatives like his namesake Earth Fund, <a href="https://www.blueorigin.com/">Blue Origin</a>, The Washington Post, and other passion projects.
Bezos will leave an astounding legacy. What started as a small online bookstore has become the template for e-Commerce and digital innovation. It has changed industries, challenged supply chains, redefined distribution, and ushered in the modern concept of the digital customer experience.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Amazon provided a lifeline to millions of sheltered citizens toiling for toilet paper in a contactless world. It also created jobs around the globe that were deemed essential during an economic crisis.
While those positive attributes persist, the Bezos regime has left an indelible red mark on the retail industry. For better or worse, the Amazon Effect has had a profound <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/insights/amazon-effect-us-economy/">impact on our economy</a>, and is often linked to the dreaded "retail apocalypse" playing out in shopping malls around the U.S.
In physical retail realm, Amazon has been met with a range of successes and failures, which include the purchase of high-end grocer Whole Foods to the <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/retailers-wary-amazon-com-closing-150500266.html">shuttering of nearly 100 pop-up stores</a> in 2019. This manic foray is still nascent, but they have a lot of money to experiment with.
Bezos has not been without controversy both in his personal and professional lives. And while the exploits of the world’s richest man will continue to be fodder for media over-analysis, what’s more interesting – and speaks volumes about Amazon’s future – is his replacement: Andy Jassy.
<h3 id="who-exactly-is-andy-jassy">Who exactly is Andy Jassy?</h3>
Jassy, who currently heads the Amazon Web Services (AWS) division, has been a fixture at the retail juggernaut nearly as long as Bezos. Over the course of his 24-year tenure, he is credited with building AWS into the world’s most profitable cloud computing brand – and charting a new course for the internet giant in an evolving, highly-competitive digital world.
When Amazon <a href="https://press.aboutamazon.com/news-releases/news-release-details/amazon-web-services-launches-amazon-s3-simple-storage-service">launched AWS in 2006</a>, it happened with very little fanfare; the cloud computing division was, after all, designed to support the growth of their online bookselling empire. They needed a modern infrastructure to meet customer demand, adapt quickly to changes, and manage resources around the seasonal buying habits of shoppers.
It’s fair to say that AWS was born out of Amazon’s need to “scratch its own itch.” Yet within a decade, it had created a tectonic shift in the technology landscape.
As the Amazon mothership diversified and expanded its retail offerings, so too did AWS. And it was under Andy Jassy’s leadership and vision that the cloud computing division was groomed as its own profit center – to the point where <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/02/aws-earnings-q4-2020.html#:~:text=AWS%20continued%20to%20drive%20much,same%20period%20a%20year%20ago.">AWS has become the growth engine for its parent company.</a>
<h3 id="a-brief-history-of-jassy-at-aws">A brief history of Jassy at AWS</h3>
Like Bezos, Jassy’s own career with Amazon is a legend in its own right. Shortly after graduating with an MBA from Harvard Business School, he joined the fledgling startup in 1997. After a stint in marketing, he and Bezos collaborated on the concept for AWS, leveraging the company’s growing footprint of data centers to building a virtual ecosystem for hosting business services and applications.
What started as a small initiative with less than 60 employees has ballooned to over 25,000 worldwide and $40 billion in revenue – and Jassy’s fortunes have skyrocketed in lockstep. As CEO of AWS, he now earns the kind of money that buys a stake in the <a href="https://www.nhl.com/kraken">Seattle Kraken hockey club</a>.
As the new CEO of Amazon, he might be buying an entire team. Or a league.
In the early days, AWS (run by then Amazon CTO Allan Vermeulen) offered a limited spectrum of services within their e-Commerce-as-a-service model. The tools were mostly disparate, and the offerings still primitive.
When Jassy started managing the portfolio at <a href="http://amazon.com/" rel="nofollow">Amazon.com</a> Web Services (as it was called) in 2003, he laid out a vision for an “Internet OS” after seeing their own teams struggle with infrastructure issues. He outlined key areas like database, storage, and compute as foundational components, all based on how <a href="http://amazon.com/" rel="nofollow">Amazon.com</a> was leveraging them in a scalable, cost-effective manner.
Fast forward, and AWS has perfected this model across hundreds of services that support every kind of application – from storage to satellites. Customers can outsource their computing and infrastructure needs in regions around the world, allowing them to run and scale applications while controlling capacity at every turn.
The other big concept that Jassy helped pioneer was AWS’ subscription-based pricing. Trading CapEx for OpEx allowed businesses to part ways with expensive hardware and maintenance and instead focus on operations. This pay-as-you-go model has eliminated costly long-term contracts, reduced dependency on data centers, and democratized the cloud by lowering the barriers to entry.
<h3 id="the-impact-of-aws-on-digital-experience">The impact of AWS on digital experience</h3>
As digital experiences have evolved, so have their reliance on cloud infrastructure. For e-Commerce websites, running a digital business application that’s “cloud-first” or purpose-built for AWS provides an unmatched set of advantages like rapidly scaling resources, enhancing redundancy, and reducing capacity costs through optimization.
The cloud has had a profound effect on applications that leverage these capabilities, including content management (CMS), digital experience (DXP), customer relationship (CRM), marketing automation, and customer data. Solutions that are “cloud-first” or purpose-built for AWS can connect and scale in ways that were previously unimaginable, and this has influenced how enterprises select platforms as part of their stack.
Software that's designed for the cloud will have the advantage in a cloud world. When considering a CMS, DXP, or CRM platform, organizations will rely on security artifacts, deep learning algorithms, and other advanced cloud services that can be orchestrated through these platforms. Add the complexity of compliance (such as GDPR and CCPA) and the cloud becomes a governance watchdog.
What's exciting is that many of these solutions can be procured in the <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace">AWS Marketplace</a>, a virtual shopping mall for applications designed to run on AWS. As they continue to pioneer new services, AWS is enhancing these platforms with AI and machine learning capabilities like <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/personalize/">Amazon Personalize</a>, which provides a subscription-based recommendation engine using the same technology that powers <a href="http://amazon.com/" rel="nofollow">Amazon.com</a>.
Under Jassy’s leadership, digital experience has been thrust to the forefront of business imperatives. Exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, more organizations are relying on the cloud and digital transformation to adapt to a new world of “digital-first” commerce – and AWS is powering the transformation.
<h3 id="what-does-jassy-s-role-as-amazon-ceo-signal-for-the-future">What does Jassy’s role as Amazon CEO signal for the future?</h3>
This is a brave, new world – and it’s Andy Jassy’s for the taking. As he assumes command of the Amazon flagship later this year, all eyes will be on him.
Amazon’s selection of Jassy was based heavily on his track record at AWS. But what this move signals is the global shift in consumer habits, and how the cloud will be instrumental to unlocking the future.
During his keynote speech at <a href="https://youtu.be/xZ3k7Fd6_eU">AWS re:Invent</a> in December 2020, Jassy said that the Covid-19 pandemic “accelerated cloud adoption by several years.” This reality will serve as his greatest opportunity, but also his greatest challenge. Competitors are rising from all corners of the globe with a focus on owning the digital consumer, and that means innovation will be essential to his success.
From the beginning, Jassy has been leading AWS to innovate rapidly and push the boundaries. Technologies like <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/containers/">containers</a> and <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=aws+serverless+computing&amp;rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS763US764&amp;oq=aws+serverless+computing&amp;aqs=chrome..69i57j0i22i30l6j69i64l2.4454j0j4&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8">serverless computing</a> – widely seen as the next wave of digital transformation – are beginning to power everything. By leveraging Jassy’s expertise around these cutting-edge innovations, Amazon can draft a roadmap for offering advanced services across their channels.
The lesser-known AWS Marketplace might be one area where Jassy blends cloud services through Amazon. While traditionally a DevOps-focused shopping experience, the AWS Marketplace is already offering more business applications that are built for the cloud. This could be expanded to include SaaS technologies sold more broadly across the Amazon ecosystem.
<h3 id="the-challenges-ahead">The challenges ahead</h3>
For Bezos, Amazon has always been a sandbox for invention. Maybe its greatest invention is the grooming of Andy Jassy as its leader.
Time and again, Jassy has executed a cohesive vision, generating billions and growing Amazon into a titan.
But where do you go when you’ve already reached the top?
One place to start might be the relationship with large retailers – the very brands that Amazon has eaten away at for years. Borders, Toys ‘R Us, and other legacy brick-and-mortar players struggled and lost to the convenience and delivery of Amazon. Needless to say, when it comes to Amazon, trust is a rare commodity among many retail brands.
But as Walmart (arguably Amazon’s biggest challenger) continues to expand their own offerings, many retailers like Nordstrom and Nike have turned to AWS to juice their digital experiences by running mission-critical workloads in the cloud.
As the early moves begin to crystallize, what’s already clear is the rising challenge from competitive clouds (think <a href="https://cloud.google.com/">Google</a>, <a href="https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/">Microsoft</a>, and even <a href="https://us.alibabacloud.com/">Alibaba</a>), the ever-present threat of Walmart and its breadth of physical locations, and the looming governance around data privacy. There are also lingering issues around the company’s reputation as a "business killer," despite having over a million businesses operating on their platform.
Perhaps the only certainty that Andy Jassy faces is change. 2020 accelerated digital, but 2021 may bring an unexpected fork in the road. Jassy is inheriting an empire he helped build, so he knows it more intimately than almost anyone. That gives him an unmatched insight to adapt and thrive in a changing world.
With millions of products and services under the Amazon/AWS umbrella – from cloud to streaming video to <a href="https://www.housingwire.com/articles/49260-you-can-now-buy-your-house-on-amazon/#:~:text=Now%2C%20Amazon%20is%20making%20this,some%20are%20selling%20like%20hotcakes.&amp;text=Amazon's%20got%20you%20covered.,of%20292%20square%20feet.">prefabricated houses</a> – there's a vast kingdom to oversee. What could possibly go wrong?
You read that right: you can buy a house on Amazon.
Maybe Jassy’s next trick will be giving you an address on the moon.

Andy Jassy, Amazon’s new CEO, signals bold future for cloud and digital experiences

A few weeks ago, over 2 billion WhatsApp users had a rude awakening.
The popular instant messaging service – which was <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2014/10/06/facebook-closes-19-billion-whatsapp-deal/?sh=29c286f55c66">acquired by Facebook</a> in 2014 for a whopping $19 billion – pushed out a change to its privacy terms.
If you read the message on the app’s home screen, it doesn’t say much:
<img style="max-width:400px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/02/whatsapp-privacy-policy-572x1024.png" alt="Screenshot of WhatsApp privacy policy" />
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But dig a little deeper and you’ll find a daunting 4000-word <a href="https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/updates/privacy-policy/?lang=en">privacy policy</a> that essentially gives WhatsApp the right to share user data with Facebook and Facebook-owned platforms like Instagram. This includes phone numbers, IP addresses, and other personal identifiers outlined within the terms.
The update was initially scheduled to go into effect on February 8th, after which users must agree to the new terms – or be cut off from the app. After receiving a preponderance of media coverage and consumer pushback, WhatsApp decided to delay the cutoff to May 15th.
"We’re now moving back the date on which people will be asked to review and accept the terms," said WhatsApp on a <a href="https://blog.whatsapp.com/giving-more-time-for-our-recent-update">blog post</a>. "No one will have their account suspended or deleted on February 8th. We're also going to do a lot more to clear up the misinformation around how privacy and security works on WhatsApp. We’ll then go to people gradually to review the policy at their own pace before new business options are available on May 15th."
To suggest that these changes are controversial would be an understatement. And yet, this is par for the course for Facebook, which has struggled to win back trust after its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/17/the-cambridge-analytica-scandal-changed-the-world-but-it-didnt-change-facebook">widely publicized scandal with Cambridge Analytica</a>. Despite a tarnished reputation, it continues to be the largest social media platform in the world with over 2.5 billion monthly users. Still, the awareness around Facebook’s mishandling of personal data has drawn the ire and scorn of many users.
<h3>From WhatsApp to… where?</h3>
When news spread about WhatsApp and their proposed policy changes, users started jumping ship in droves.
While the social messaging market is relatively mature, only a handful of platforms have elevated their brand awareness to the level of WhatsApp. More importantly, just a few have touted their emphasis on securing personal data while remaining open and accessible.
One popular destination for the WhatsApp exodus was <a href="https://telegram.org/">Telegram</a> – a cloud-based mobile and desktop messaging app with a focus on security and speed. Their CEO reported <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/business/business-news/telegram-chief-reports-25-million-new-users-in-three-days-938314.html">25 million new users in three days</a>, which was a groundswell of activations for the company. It's worth noting that Telegram has refused to hand over encryption keys in several countries to protect user data, demonstrating their commitment to data privacy.
While Telegram and other niche platforms like Discord and Tox were beneficiaries, the real gold rush came after tech mogul <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-bytes/another-signal-gains-after-elon-musks-tweet/articleshow/80234425.cms?from=mdr">Elon Musk tweeted only two words</a>:
“Use Signal.”
By the end of the day, <a href="https://www.howtogeek.com/708916/what-is-signal-and-why-is-everyone-using-it/">Signal</a> – a free privacy-focused messaging and voice app – experienced a massive surge of more than 42 million new users.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/02/elon-musk-use-signal-tweet.jpg" alt="Screenshot of Elon Musk's Tweet about Signal" />
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<h3>A strong Signal for messaging</h3>
Once a lesser-known contender in the messaging market, Signal became the hottest app on the planet – and the preferred alternative to WhatsApp.
First tweeted about in 2015 by Edward Snowden, Signal is a secure platform with rich features like one-to-one messaging, groups, stickers, photos, file transfers, voice calls, and even video calls. Millions of people use Signal every day to instantaneously send and receive high-fidelity messages for a wide variety of personal and business needs – and as stated, it’s free.
Like WhatsApp, communications on Signal are end-to-end encrypted – meaning only the people in a direct conversation can see the content of their messages. Like Telegram, Signal is so committed to securing user messages that some countries have <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_(software)#:~:text=As%20of%20October%202017%2C%20Signal's,Signal%20was%20blocked%20in%20Iran.">banned it</a>.
<h3>Tapping Twilio for phone numbers</h3>
While Signal offers an alternative to the WhatsApp privacy conundrum, users can further secure their transactions on any messaging platform with some simple strategies.
Like WhatsApp, registering for Signal requires a phone number. But it doesn’t have to be your own phone number – it simply needs to be an active number for receiving a verification code via text message during the account registration process.
<a href="https://www.twilio.com/">Twilio</a>, a cloud-based communications platform, allows you to receive phone calls and SMS messages using their dynamic <a href="https://www.twilio.com/phone-numbers">phone number service</a>. In fact, Twilio powers the new-user verifications for Signal and manages new-user authentication and password resets for WhatsApp – making it an incredibly useful solution for messaging apps and services.
You can purchase a <a href="https://www.twilio.com/phone-numbers">phone number</a> from Twilio to use for Signal for as little as $1/month by creating a Twilio account <a href="https://www.twilio.com/try-twilio">here</a>.
<h3>What’s next for WhatsApp?</h3>
While Facebook still rules the social kingdom, it has clearly plateaued – and continues to bleed existing users. WhatsApp may struggle to find its footing in a fragmented landscape of multi-channel messaging options, especially as remote platforms like <a href="https://www.voxer.com/">Voxer</a> blur the lines between personal and business communications.
Still, it’s too early to tell, and Facebook has billions of dollars – and billions of users – to support more innovation. In a post-Zuckerberg regime, it may very well adapt and evolve, and bring WhatsApp along for the ride.
Twilio has been on a roll lately with multiple <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/twilio-acquires-segment-for-3-2b-adds-market-leading-cdp-for-building-data-driven-apps/">acquisitions</a>. While it may see lower user activity on WhatsApp, the spike in Signal downloads might offset that lost usage revenue. Regardless, they appear to have positioned themselves as an indispensable part of the social messaging landscape and the foundation for digital communications in 2021 and beyond.
<h3>About Signal</h3>
Privacy is possible. Signal Messenger makes it easy. At <a href="https://signal.org/">Signal</a>, the goal is to develop open-source privacy technology that protects privacy rights, promotes free expression, and enables secure global communication. Signal believes that private messaging should be simple and ubiquitous, combining state-of-the-art security and end-to-end encryption with the features that users expect in a modern messaging application. Millions of people use Signal every day to speak freely, and a growing list of organizations have integrated the open-source Signal Protocol into messaging platforms that support billions of users.
<h3>About Twilio</h3>
<a href="https://www.twilio.com/">Twilio</a> is a cloud communication company that powers the future of business communications, enabling phones, VoIP, and messaging to be embedded into web, desktop, and mobile software. They take care of the messy telecom hardware and expose a globally available cloud API that developers can interact with to build intelligent &amp; complex communications systems. As your app’s usage scales up or down, Twilio automatically scales with you. You only pay for what you use - no contracts, no shenanigans.

Signal Gains 42 Million Users Fleeing WhatsApp, Facebook Over Privacy Policy

Image of the Signal app interface on a mobile phone

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