Articles

composable Article

What's Ahead for MACH in 2024? Read These 3 Predictions

matt-garrepy

Contentstack just acquired Lytics, a real-time customer data platform. Here’s why it matters

The Sommelier of MACHtails: Sommsation’s Danielle Diliberti Uncorks Composability 

What's the MACH vibe in 2025? Here are 3 predictions (and more)

<hr /> During a recent <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/agility">Agility CMS</a> “Ask Me Anything” webinar, I was subjected to a trifecta of “dad jokes” – courtesy of <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/playing-to-win-in-the-headless-cms-game-interview-with-joel-varty-cto-at-agility">Joel Varty</a>. In addition to his part-time standup vocation, Joel is the Chief Technology Officer of the Toronto-based headless <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">content management system</a>, where he’s spent almost two decades innovating around digital experiences and supporting notable brands like Cineplex, Mitsubishi Electric, and ScotiaBank.As a comically blessed father myself (IMHO), I appreciated his technique and material – especially the closer about a sad math book that couldn’t solve its own problems. Insert rimshot.Dad jokes aside, Joel is as cool as they come on stage. I’ve seen him bake under the hot lights of the now-famous <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/blog/2024/8/kajoo-wins-cmsidol24-montreal">“CMS Idol” competition</a>, and from my perspective, he’s one CTO who keeps his demo muscle in solid shape (I’m sure there’s a dad joke in there). As advertised, Agility’s AMA session effectively “pulled back the curtain” on its new <a target="_blank" href="https://agilitycms.com/product/web-studio">Web Studio,</a> which promises enhanced features for customers to create, preview, and collaborate on web content. Web Studio reflects a tacit transformation we’ve been seeing across the headless CMS market, one where pure-play platforms have been bridging the visual gap. Content creators want a simple UI that enables them to see exactly what their stuff will look like when it’s live. At the same time, they need to collaborate with team members to preview, review, comment on, and approve their pages before publishing. Agility's Web Studio delivers the full monty and then some – with dynamite features already penciled in on the roadmap. The company has flown Web Studio with a few test pilots as part of what it calls its “Ambassador Program,” and the solution is getting solid reviews. As part of the AMA, I got a first-hand tour of Web Studio, and I concur. As billed, it’s a heckuva lot more than just a WYSIWYG editor. The entire experience feels intuitive, elegant, lightweight, and easy to navigate – and fits seamlessly into Agility’s clean, minimal framework while providing easy access to all the essential tooling. <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:66.45%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/joel-brendan-headshots.jpg" alt="" /></figure>Agility's AMA presenters: Joel Varty, CTO (left), and Brendan Cooney, Senior Manager Joel conducted the webinar with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bmcooney/">Brendan Cooney</a>, Senior Manager at Agility. They showcased how content creation and teamwork are central to the new experience and woven into its new attributes.A bit of history on the genesis of Web Studio: It began as a feature called Preview Center, which made its debut at the <a target="_blank" href="https://aarhus25.boye-co.com/">Boye Aarhus 2023 Conference</a> and ended up <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/blog/2023/11/agility-wins-the-2023-small-feature-award">winning the event's coveted “Small Feature Award.”</a> The achievement sparked some new thinking – both practical and blue sky – which Joel crystallized during the AMA.“What if Brendan’s typing in a field, and then I’m typing in a field? What happens there? That snowballed into ‘now we need Figma-style comments,’ [and] ‘now we need Google Docs style content editing.’ So it kind of turned into a whole lot of things, which is really exciting for us.”Here’s a snapshot of what I saw, and what you can expect as it rolls out.<h3 id="it’s-a-lot-less-lonely-with-presence">It’s a lot less lonely with Presence</h3>One of the coolest new features in Web Studio is the Presence Indicator, which visually displays an icon of who’s online in the system. With a click, you can jump to the specific page or asset that a person is working on and collaborate in tandem. It’s simple but super handy – and editors are sure to love it.  <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:83.64%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/agility-web-studio-presence.jpg" alt="" /></figure>The Presence Indicator (appearing at the top of the Agility UI) shows other team members actively working in the system As Joel and Brendan noted, Presence accentuates collaboration in a personal way, making the experience feel like hanging out with friends. By reducing the friction to share and connect within the system, Agility is offering a more human (er… humane?) experience – one that can reduce the challenges around communicating and collaborating.<h3 id="instant-field-locking-and-built-in-commenting">Instant field-locking and built-in commenting</h3>Content collisions are a pain, but version conflicts might be a thing of the past with Web Studio’s slick new field locking feature. Simply slide the lock button into place and you effectively control your session. At the same time, your collaborators can see what fields you’re working on and what changes you’re making in real time. Users can also leave comments with total ease. Just tag a team member with an “@“ and leave a notification, comments, or even reactions. You can also resolve the comment once you reply, making the function more like a task assignment or project management feature. You can also access a full history of comments. All around, it’s definitely a win for users and teams.Once you see the commenting and collaboration tools, it’s logical to thread the needle with other communication tools in the broader ecosystem. As Joel indicated, users can expect both email and Slack notifications in the near future.<h2 id="previews">Previews</h2>Out of the box, Web Studio provides both a staging and preview environment in addition to your live view. It’s all easily within reach. You can also leverage the <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/agility/web-studio-sdk">Agility Web Studio SDK</a> to decorate the fields and components. Previews also work with pages and content items. A big upgrade: you’ll be able to switch between multiple deployments, an action that's been less flexible in the past in Agility.  <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:86.64%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/agility-web-studio-preview.jpg" alt="" /></figure>Web Studio provides a seamless preview within Agility as well as easy-to-use commenting features You can also manually expand or collapse your window to preview and inspect different device sizes. That might sound like a simple expectation with most modern CMS UIs, but it's more fluid than you think. The word “silky” comes to mind, and it's worth seeing in action.One other cool benefit is the commenting mode, which allows you to click anywhere and leave comments on your preview. It's just another example of how collaboration has been baked into the foundation of Web Studio.<h3 id="decorating-components">Decorating components</h3>This is where developers can customize their components for editors. As Joel demonstrated in real time, you can access code in Agility to decorate your component fields, making it easier for developers to render changes and empower content creators to do their thing. Once his changes were complete, it was all pushed to <a target="_blank" href="https://vercel.com/">Vercel</a>, and… presto. Ready in minutes.As he noted, it takes a little more time to set up new components the right way, but doing so ultimately enhances the editor experience. Joel reinforced the importance of this vital relationship between developers and content creators, and how it can unleash greater value.  <h3 id="the-critic-consensus">The Critic Consensus</h3>Visual editing and preview capabilities have become an expectation for every headless CMS. But delivering the right mix of capabilities – wrapped in a simple yet satisfying experience – is the real dealmaker. Agility Web Studio offers a differentiated visual experience and a fantastic upgrade to the platform’s easy-to-use interface. With trick features like the Presence capability, users should find it intuitive and (dare I say) fun to interact and collaborate around content. And in the high-pressure, high-stakes world of accelerating your marketing content, finding more productive and rewarding ways to make the journey is a win-win.The collaboration enhancements are slick, and the in-app commenting and task resolution capabilities are sure to please marketers, developers, and content creators alike. The seamless ability to share, review, and approve within Agility should help reduce bottlenecks and laborious back-and-forth emails.From a broader market perspective, headless CMSes continue to appreciate steady demand as fixtures across many RFPs. That’s also why we continue to see new platforms entering the market. While the noise has dampened from the peaks of 2023 and early 2024 (I must have been talking to a new headless platform every week), opportunity and choice continue to drive persistent growth.Generally speaking, choice is good for buyers. But above all, they want confidence and trust – and that’s where platforms like Agility have a key advantage in a sea of sameness. As a veteran player, they’ve amassed a solid track record with globally recognized brands, powering workloads with mission-critical performance and compliance considerations. <h3 id="one-last-note-on-the-‘art-of-the-live-demo’">One last note on the ‘Art of the Live Demo’</h3>No one wants to code in front of other people. It’s a bit like using a public restroom – which, for many people, is fraught with anxiety. When Joel started to manually update a component on the fly, he demonstrated how easy it is to customize. That said, when a few tags went off the rails, he kept his cool and made the whole process feel smooth and authentic. Call it Murphy’s Law, but there’s always a bump or two in the road. The “agility” (see what I did there?) to keep rolling when things don’t go as planned is, in itself, a testament to the presenter. If you’re evaluating a CMS, I still stand by the impact of a live demo from a qualified practitioner – bumps and all. Yes, good documentation is a must-have; ultimately, we're trying to empower our users and get out of the way. But a solid CMS in your composable stack is a critical decision, and Agility is doing it right by emphasizing the human part of its proposition.Speaking of which, you can learn more about Web Studio <a target="_blank" href="https://agilitycms.com/product/web-studio">here</a>. Dad jokes not included. <hr /><h4 style="text-align:center" id="looking-for-guidance-on-agility?--talk-to-us.-">Looking for guidance on Agility?  <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/contact">Talk to us. </a></h4><hr /><h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-2025"><a href=" https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25">CMS Kickoff 2025</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaMeet industry leaders at our third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global CMS event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">so secure your tickets today.</a> <img style="width:30.46%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/cms-summit-25.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-summit-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit25">CMS Summit 25</a></h4>May 13-14, 2025 – Frankfurt, GermanyDon't miss the first European edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community! CMS Summit 25 will bring together top-notch speakers, our renowned learning format, and engaging social events. Hear from leading practitioners like Deutsche Bahn, Dr. Oetker, and more – and join customers, agencies, and CMS vendors as we discuss current trends and what's ahead for the content and digital experience fields. Connect and network at the only vendor-neutral, in-person conference focused on CMS. Space is limited for this exclusive event, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit25">so book your seats today.</a>

Agility CMS Web Studio Aims to Streamline Content Creation and Collaboration

<hr /> Seems like we’ve been talking a lot about DAMs these days. Why? Because there’s so much DAM stuff to deal with.It’s true. Many large enterprises have thousands – even millions – of digital assets spread across a myriad of systems and databases. At the same time, marketing teams are under increasing pressure to work faster while maintaining control and governance.Over the last two years, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-digital-asset-management-dam-system">digital asset management systems</a> have been stepping up to meet this challenge, enhancing their product capabilities with an abundance of AI capabilities. This evolution in functionality, driven largely by AI, is impacting productivity for teams and driving greater value for brands. In that same stretch, I've seen numerous demos from pure-play DAM platforms and DXPs with dedicated DAM features, many of which were on display at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.henrystewartconferences.com/events/dam-new-york-2024">DAM New York 2024</a> just a few weeks ago. While there are many horizontal plays within the DAM market landscape, there are certainly niche products that understand the unique needs and challenges of the markets they serve, providing a more immersive UX that’s discretely geared toward those requirements. These tend to be pure-play solutions with a penchant for integration. Such is the case with <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/cloudinary">Cloudinary</a>, an image and video platform that enables some of the world’s most engaging brands to deliver transformative visual experiences at an enterprise scale. With more than two million users and 10,000 customers (including Adidas, Etsy, Fiverr, Rivian, and more), Cloudinary helps organizations manage huge asset volumes, improve collaboration, save thousands of hours on repetitive tasks, and increase conversions.During DAM New York, Cloudinary announced some new and interesting capabilities to <a target="_blank" href="https://cloudinary.com/blog/the-intelligent-dam">Cloudinary Assets</a>, the company’s intelligent, API-first digital asset management platform. These innovative features are designed to streamline every stage of the asset lifecycle, including customizable creative review and approval workflows, portals for controlling asset sharing, and intuitive AI solutions that automate manual tasks. If you're not familiar with Assets, here's a quick video overview: <figure class="media"><div data-oembed-url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM3UmmT_oB0"><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:100%;height:0;padding-bottom:56.2493%"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iM3UmmT_oB0" style="position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;top:0;left:0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div></figure> As an ecosystem, Cloudinary Assets complements the company's other nifty resources. This includes a programmable media feature for automating video and image lifecycles and a <a target="_blank" href="https://cloudinary.com/video_api">robust video API</a> that allows developers to programmatically access and manipulate video content on the web with uploading, storage, encoding, and delivery optimizations.Cloudinary has long embraced the promise of composable architectures, which has guided its innovation path and strategy (more on that in a minute). As such, its new features are purpose-built to deliver greater flexibility for customers within their martech stacks – one of the many reasons why it was recently named a <a target="_blank" href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Flp.cloudinary.com%2Farp.lp.idc_marketscape.html%3Futm_campaign%3D4007-%26utm_medium%3Dpress_releases%26utm_source%3Dbusinesswire%23form_section&amp;esheet=54140182&amp;newsitemid=20241022561325&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Leader+in+the+IDC+MarketScape%3A+Worldwide+Intelligent+Digital+Asset+Management&amp;index=3&amp;md5=843ea3470f82578e4adb9f69ff135925">Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Intelligent Digital Asset Management</a>“Today’s visual economy demands that brands harness the full power of their images and videos to engage and connect with consumers, and these modern experiences require a modern DAM,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-daynes-1456173a/">Rob Daynes</a>, Managing Director of Digital Asset Management at Cloudinary. “When powerful martech tools work together in harmony, the professionals that rely on them can too. This raises the bar for the kinds of experiences they can build to truly distinguish themselves in their market.”Will these new features pay off for Cloudinary customers? According to the company, they will – big time. They project that a brand's launch cycles could accelerate profoundly, dropping from weeks or days to minutes. Asset costs could be reduced by up to 60%. And here's the clincher: users could save up to 75% of their time toiling in asset management, driving a significant ROI through enhanced productivity. These are some sweet value props. Can Assets deliver the goods?I'm sure Cloudinary would say (resoundingly): “You bet your assets.” But let’s dig in a little deeper. <h3 id="an-api-first-dam-for-composable-architectures">An API-first DAM for composable architectures</h3>Recently, Cloudinary commissioned an <a target="_blank" href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fcloudinary.com%2Fproducts%2Fdigital_asset_management%2Fsurvey%3Futm_campaign%3D4007-%26utm_medium%3Dpress_releases%26utm_source%3Dbusinesswire&amp;esheet=54140182&amp;newsitemid=20241022561325&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=independent+DAM+survey&amp;index=11&amp;md5=0092398e234b7db65818807e845a90ae">independent DAM survey</a>, revealing that 86% of respondents consider a highly integratable DAM to be extremely or very important. That makes sense based on all the dynamics I’ve already outlined.“Highly integratable” is a kind of synonym for composable, which is indeed reflected in Cloudinary’s grounding API-first posture. This architectural approach has long been the company’s guiding light, and is codified by its early membership in the <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/new-logo-new-leaders-mach-alliance-announces-key-appointments-and-brand-refresh">MACH Alliance</a>. The platform offers a robust ecosystem of more than 300 partners, integrations, and plug-ins with many of the marketing ecosystem’s most popular tools.Cloudinary sees its DAM as a “single source of truth” for all visual assets, consolidating the often disparate visual asset technologies managed across teams in one highly connected and intelligent platform. With its rich focus on the image and video asset category, its composable capabilities give it an edge when fitting into a diverse martech stack with distributed data.<h3 id="powerful-and-practical-ai-capabilities">Powerful and practical AI capabilities</h3>There are several places where AI is augmenting Cloudinary’s DAM features to improve efficiency while delivering greater control and confidence for marketing teams. First, Cloudinary’s embedded AI automates the creative review and approval workflows by enabling auto-tagging and visual search for simpler asset classification and discovery. Its AI-powered content moderation and credentialing – with <a target="_blank" href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fcloudinary.com%2Fblog%2Fc2pa-standard-implementation%3Futm_campaign%3D4007-%26utm_medium%3Dpress_releases%26utm_source%3Dbusinesswire&amp;esheet=54140182&amp;newsitemid=20241022561325&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=C2PA+compliance&amp;index=10&amp;md5=1895ae4da0c24b994d0060e4969a27a1">C2PA compliance</a> – helps ensure brand compliance and customer confidence in every asset, even as library volumes increase and <a target="_blank" href="https://cloudinary.com/documentation/user_generated_content">user-generated content</a> (UGC) and AI content proliferate.Its DAM also has a deep bench of practical AI capabilities that accelerate time to market for visual storytellers. These include automating manual tasks at scale, such as cropping, resizing, and delivering assets in the ideal file format and quality.With Cloudinary’s cutting-edge generative AI capabilities – available within its visual workspace, Studio – any DAM user can create unlimited on-brand customizations of a single asset or collection of assets for any use case. Accurate previews eliminate publishing risk and ensure that assets transformed by generative AI automation (such as background removal and fill, object removal and replacement, product recoloring, or image quality enhancement) will look flawless once delivered to the consumer.<h3 id="what-are-the-new-features-in-assets?">What are the new features in Assets?</h3>Here’s a quick rundown, starting with robust <a target="_blank" href="https://cloudinary.com/products/digital_asset_management/moderate-review">creative review and approval</a> capabilities. Marketing teams will benefit from a more centralized and collaborative workflow automation solution, allowing them to customize and match their own review and approval processes for images, videos, PDFs, and other content and file types – and even include both internal and external stakeholders. It also sports enterprise-grade security and auditing, so brands in highly regulated industries can maintain strict governance.  <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:65.02%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/cloudinary-metadata-screenshot.png" alt="" /></figure>Managing metadata and adding AI-generated captioning are powerful tools in Cloudinary Assets Content moderation is critical for marketing teams, particularly as assets grow exponentially. As such, Cloudinary has juiced its platform with <a target="_blank" href="https://cloudinary.com/solutions/user-generated-content">AI-powered moderation tools</a>, helping brands meet compliance by automating things like credentialing and compliance checks. Teams can also maintain higher standards while coping with the challenging realities of UGC and other assets entering the ecosystem.Powered by Cloudinary’s proprietary MediaFlows solution, the enhanced <a target="_blank" href="https://cloudinary.com/products/digital_asset_management/asset-workflow-templates">asset workflow automation</a> is a no-code solution that sets up actions when uploading assets – or times actions to occur by specific criteria such as expiration date, changes to metadata, and other details. Asset workflow automation can also be customized with more complex workflows and integrations by upgrading to the full suite of MediaFlows capabilities.  <img style="width:46.3%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/cloudinary-asset-worfklow-screen.png" alt="" />Asset workflow automation offers granular control of specific asset actions and details On the frontend, there’s also something called <a target="_blank" href="https://cloudinary.com/products/digital_asset_management/portals">Cloudinary Portals</a>, which makes it easy to securely curate and share assets with everyone on your team or specified stakeholders. Portals enables business users to create fully branded digital experiences across media sharing, brand guideline portals, press portals, partner and sales enablement centers, and more.On the video side, there are some cool GenAI video editing features. These advancements are intended to support the <a target="_blank" href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fcloudinary.com%2Fsolutions%2Fvideo%2Fsurvey%3Futm_campaign%3D4007-%26utm_medium%3Dpress_releases%26utm_source%3Dbusinesswire&amp;esheet=54140182&amp;newsitemid=20241022561325&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=80%25+of+brands+that+plan+to+expand+their+use+of+video&amp;index=12&amp;md5=098c47b4c8e32efbf3635f928c3fdd05">80% of brands planning to expand their use of video</a>. This includes incredibly handy tools for generating smart previews, transcriptions, captioning, and auto-translations – so brands can reach everyone on any device with more accessible experiences. Cloudinary also supports multiple video file formats, including short-form, long-form, e-commerce, information and how-to, and other applications. <h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>“DAM done differently.” That’s how Cloudinary visualizes its platform promise. It’s catchy, and it certainly reflects the company's culture of innovation.AI is the name of the game when it comes to the DAM roadmap and horizon. As the competitive field continues to expand, pure-play providers, DXPs, and PaaS solutions will continue to leverage high-utility AI features to provide differentiated value to customers. Most of that value will be derived from enhancements in speed, productivity, and governance. But platforms like Cloudinary might have an advantage relative to their decade-long focus on digital imagery and video, and its persistent posture of composability. Being API-first is a key determiner for buyers and evaluators looking for MACH-centric solutions that fit the bill within composable stacks, and Cloudinary has long been a champion of composability.Still, the DAM market is getting thicker. <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/slam-dam-dunk-canto-acquires-image-relay-plans-to-align-dam-and-pim-features">With Canto’s acquisition of Image Relay</a>, there’s a motion towards consolidating power at the pure-play enterprise level. Meanwhile, DXPs and Content Marketing Platforms (CMPs) like <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/acquia">Acquia</a> continue to roll out more high-utility AI-driven features like native video editing – making it less cumbersome for brands to simply add and access these features. Downstream, PaaS players like <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/directus">Directus</a> are offering built-in choice with their own integrated DAM, just as other legacy CMS platforms continue to improve their own capabilities. The good news: demand is growing, and innovation will pay off for marketing teams and brands.If you’re evaluating platforms, consider your goals relative to composability. Cloudinary's API-first posture puts them squarely in that league, but they're also enhancing the key features that really add up in a good DAM: asset lifecycle management, customizable workflows, roles-based permissions, and of course, AI and machine learning capabilities. In terms of trust, it's hard to find a more best-of-breed, pure-play DAM provider than Cloudinary. They clearly understand the value of image and video assets at the enterprise level, and they're striving to lead the way with emerging technologies in the DAM field. Bottom line: It’s a safe bet for covering your assets.  <hr /><h4 style="text-align:center" id="looking-for-guidance-on-cloudinary?--talk-to-us.-">Looking for guidance on Cloudinary?  <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/contact">Talk to us. </a></h4><hr /><h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-2025"><a href=" https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25">CMS Kickoff 2025</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">so secure your tickets today.</a> <img style="width:30.46%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/cms-summit-25.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-summit-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit25">CMS Summit 25</a></h4>May 13-14, 2025 – Frankfurt, GermanyDon't miss the first European edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community! CMS Summit 25 will bring together top-notch speakers, our renowned learning format, and engaging social events. Hear from leading practitioners like Deutsche Bahn, Dr. Oetker, and more – and join customers, agencies, and CMS vendors as we discuss current trends and what's ahead for the content and digital experience fields. Connect and network at the only vendor-neutral, in-person conference focused on CMS. Space is limited for this exclusive event, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit25">so book your seats today.</a>

Cloudinary Assets Brings New AI-Powered Features to its API-First ‘Intelligent DAM’ 

<hr /> When I spoke to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathias-biilmann-christensen-a5a3805/">Mathias Billman</a> recently, the word sanity popped up more than once during our conversation. It wasn’t an off-color reference to the chaos of our modern digital ecosystem, but the evocation of a content management tool that frequently rides alongside <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/netlify">Netlify</a> – a leading web development platform he co-founded. Of course, this is logical. <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/sanity">Sanity</a> (I'm referring to the application) offers a number of integrations and connectors for Netlify. But more importantly, Billman is an angel investor in the platform, a clear indicator that he sees Sanity as a transformative resource for composable stacks – where its novel vision as a Content Operating System is proving its value.To its credit, Sanity has carved out a unique position for itself, focusing on content as structured data and cultivating a tacit developer-centricity. It has also earned its place as a trusted solution for big global players like Figma, Puma, AT&amp;T, and Burger King, further validating its impact as enterprises strive for faster, more composable ways to power their digital experiences at scale. The run-up has been solid for Sanity. In 2021, the company <a target="_blank" href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/24/sanity-raises-39m-for-its-use-anywhere-approach-to-content-repositories/">closed on a $39 million Series B</a> that heralded its vision for extensible content repositories (and also brought its total raise to nearly $52 million). A year later, they were forging strategic partnerships with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sanity.io/blog/shopify-invests-in-sanity-connecting-commerce-with-content">the likes of Shopify</a>, nurturing its value across commerce channels. Competition has certainly swelled over the last two years, but Sanity has remained steadfast around its central mission while evolving its messaging. As Sanity proclaims, content is the competitive differentiator for brands, and its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sanity.io/">Sanity Content Operating System</a> is purpose-built to deliver on that proposition. The platform’s composition of composable APIs with a customizable workspace – along with its Content Lake storage and distribution – provides an elegant model that its peers don't offer (at least not in the same construct). Given the success of its longtail vision and the christening of its Content Operating System, the company is doubling down on the next phase of its evolution. Last week, Sanity announced that it has onboarded the complete team behind <a target="_blank" href="http://begin.com">Begin.com</a> – a company specializing in deploying full-stack web apps to <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/aws">AWS</a>. If you’re not familiar, Begin was also responsible for creating popular open source frameworks like Architect (<a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/architect">go check it out on Github</a>).Buying Begin’s mindshare is a strategic move, one that reinforces Sanity’s mission to better enable developers and digital leaders. It also deepens its goal of helping customers rethink how they use content and technology to drive growth, particularly at a time when tech budgets are being heavily scrutized around the value quotient. Begin’s CEO, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianleroux/">Brian Leroux</a>, seemed bullish about his company’s synthesis with Sanity, and noted in the company’s press release that he sees “a lot of untapped potential in how content can be used.”Sanity's Content Lake, introduced in 2018, disrupted the content management landscape by providing a central hub for integration across channels and platforms. This ignited some early gains for the platform’s offerings, particularly as composability shifted into high gear. Despite the realization of content automation for many of its customers, the full potential of automation has remained, as Leroux pointed out, relatively untapped. With the addition of Begin, Sanity hopes to accelerate its innovation and attain new levels of performance. The Begin team brings deep experience in developing powerful compute and automation capabilities – attributes that will be critical to reducing manual workloads and streamlining content processes. I had a chance to talk with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/magnushillestad">Magnus Hillestad</a>, co-founder and CEO of Sanity, about his plans for Begin. It's worth noting that Hillestad is an ex-finance and private equity guy turned tech start-up leader, thus bringing more of the traditional commercial optics to the founder's role. This is a distinct advantage for the company, one that undoubtedly contributed to its successful capital raising. Aside from the foundational benefits of force multiplying Sanity’s innovation resources, it’s clear that a central impact for customers is greater resiliency and agility in the face of widespread technological change."The Begin team joining us marks a transformative moment for Sanity and for what our customers can expect going forward," he said. “By combining their expertise in compute and modern app deployments with our vision for an automated, resilient content operating system, we're redefining what's possible in content management. This powerful synergy will unlock unprecedented levels of efficiency and innovation for our customers, propelling industries like e-commerce, media and technology into a new era of content operations.”<h3 id="where-to-begin?-with-an-automation-end-game">Where to Begin? With an automation end game</h3>Sanity has been challenging the status quo of content management since coming online in 2018. Sanity’s core philosophy – reflected in its Content Operating System platform – flips the standard CMS narrative by treating content as data, and by connecting and automating systems beyond its central hub. This shift in perception also allows teams to treat content as a more strategic asset for their business.From a developer perspective, the addition of Begin’s resources will provide a number of benefits. This includes the addition of powerful compute resources, giving users the ability to scale extensible content distribution systems with embedded automation.Begin’s heritage as an AWS development house was certainly a key part of the acquisition appeal. By absorbing a cohort of expertise with proven success deploying web apps to the world’s leading cloud, Sanity hoped to imbue its features with next-level scalability – all while mitigating the headaches associated with deploying apps on Sanity.  “The Begin Team's experience building within a 'cloud hyperscaler' environment provides substantial value to our customers through the development of powerful compute capabilities,” he said, “which simplifies the way they build complex content automations. The goal is to enable our customers to easily deploy content operations applications directly on the Sanity Content Operating System, abstracting away much of the complexity.” Hillestad went on to explain that many of Sanity’s customers are setting up content operations applications in their own cloud environments. Given this vector, he believes Sanity can provide a better developer experience by offering an abstracted compute layer, giving customers the option to leverage Sanity for their automation and content ops needs while still allowing direct cloud integrations where needed. “Ultimately, by leveraging the Begin team's capabilities, we aim to empower the same developers who have become superstars at building content workflows in Sanity Studio to also excel at deploying content operations and automation on our platform,” he said. Another stated focus for the Begin team will be the delivery of content infrastructure as code. This will manifest in more powerful tools that help users develop, deploy, and manage advanced content pipelines with greater ease and efficacy.  <h3 id="what-about-content-marketers?">What about content marketers?</h3>As previously noted, Sanity has carved out a reputation for being “developer-friendly.” That might translate to “requires code” for the gaggle of CMS users hungry for less cumbersome, more drag-and-drop-oriented solutions with composable propensities. Many of the now “legacy” headless CMS tools are endeavoring to differentiate their value through visual editing tools. Sanity is already addressing this side of content ops ledger with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sanity.io/studio">Sanity Studio</a>, which enables a host of visual features like customizable components and block content editing, as well as collaboration and workspace capabilities. On the automation front, it even sports things like intelligent image cropping and scaling. <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:72.78%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/sanity-collaboration-screenshot.jpg" alt="" /></figure>A mockup of collaboration features in Sanity Studio At the same time, the company maintains a clear pipeline back to the developers with Sanity Studio, allowing users to connect a production-ready content backend to an application. Studio’s customization framework allows for the development of unique content forms, workflows, validation, workspaces, and more – all built using modern web dev patterns that make the journey easier and more efficient. <hr /><h4 style="text-align:center">"The real win is in enabling tighter collaboration between developers and the rest of the content organization to deliver better digital experiences.”</h4><hr /> I wanted to know how Sanity’s investment in Begin would translate into greater value for the broader content operations model – vis-à-vis the marketers and editors driving the content itself. The amplification of compute resources and cloud dimensions are more the domain of DevOps; aside from impacting speed and productivity for editors, what other gains might be on the horizon?As Hillestad pointed out, the acquisition of Begin will take Sanity’s developer offerings to the next level, but the organizational benefits will be very tangible for non-developers as well. “While it's true that Sanity has always put a strong emphasis on being developer-friendly, the benefits of this approach extend far beyond the developer experience,” Hillestad said. “We believe that the most advanced organizations empower their skilled engineers to enable efficient, scalable content operations that drive impactful storytelling.”How will they deliver on this? By enabling content operations within the same system, thus reducing context switching between tools. As Hillestad explained, content strategists and product managers will have an easier path to integrating all related content and data directly into their single source of truth – enabling that richer storytelling potential. “So while speed and productivity gains are certainly part of the equation, the real win is in enabling tighter collaboration between developers and the rest of the content organization to deliver better digital experiences.”<h3 id="what-about-ai?">What about AI?</h3>While the acquisition of Begin is a big deal for Sanity, there’s been significant AI investment from all corners of the CMS landscape. Given its ambitions to evolve the Content Operating System to new levels of performance, I asked Hillestad how is AI playing into his plans – and if Begin’s proximity to <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/aws">AWS</a> and its <a target="_blank" href="https://aws.amazon.com/bedrock/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwvpy5BhDTARIsAHSilyn-dmseaMQpjDac_WRX0C1ov1es3fdfHFLRdjXEB0OHW_Z7dLGkATIaAjRmEALw_wcB&amp;trk=0eaabb80-ee46-4e73-94ae-368ffb759b62&amp;sc_channel=ps&amp;ef_id=Cj0KCQjwvpy5BhDTARIsAHSilyn-dmseaMQpjDac_WRX0C1ov1es3fdfHFLRdjXEB0OHW_Z7dLGkATIaAjRmEALw_wcB:G:s&amp;s_kwcid=AL!4422!3!692006004682!e!!g!!aws%20bedrock!21048268554!159639952735">Amazon Bedrock</a> or <a target="_blank" href="https://www.anthropic.com/">Anthropic</a> services might be an advantage.  “AI is indeed a significant part of our plans going forward, and the Begin team will play a key role in making AI capabilities more accessible to developers on our platform,” he said. “Sanity already offers several AI-powered tools for our users, leveraging services like <a target="_blank" href="https://openai.com/">OpenAI</a>, Anthropic, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.pinecone.io/">Pinecone</a>. With the addition of the Begin team, we will make it even easier for developers to build their own custom AI functions and workflows on top of our platform.” As Sanity further develops its AI offerings, Hillestad forecast that it plans to support a wide range of AI services and large language models to give its customers maximum flexibility. “The Begin team's expertise in building developer abstractions will be invaluable as we work to make these powerful AI capabilities more approachable and integrated into the Sanity ecosystem.”<h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>In a marketplace of increasingly commoditized headless offerings, Sanity continues to establish differentiated value with its niche position as a Content Operating System. As it onboards the experience and resources of Begin, it is further investing in a growth angle that will enhance automation, scalability, and performance – perhaps in profound ways. Still, Sanity’s greatest strength could be its main detractor. Developer reliance is part of the resistance for marketing organizations when adopting new tools, and decisions are being driven by composable technologies that now offer a complete range of features that enable editor independence. This is where a developer-centric perception can be a limiting factor. That said, Sanity is effectively bridging the gap. Sanity Studio is the best example of its unification potential, and already provides robust capabilities that stand apart from a UX perspective. While Begin’s cloud and compute resources will inject more integrative fabric into the platform, it would be smart to see equal attention paid to further enhancing the editor experience.Partnering with Netlify and other development platforms is also a key benefit in Sanity’s favor. By expanding its connector libraries and reducing the barriers to entry, it can accelerate content velocity for users and brands as part of a go-to composable stack. Relying on these channels will be key to enhancing visibility and preference. Of course, choice is the biggest challenge for every player on the CMS chessboard. But Sanity has managed to build a solid foundation of differentiation, one that could serve it well as it looks to grow. Adding these new resources is a great way to begin its next chapter.  <hr /> <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-2025"><a href=" https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25">CMS Kickoff 2025</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">so secure your tickets today.</a>

Sanity Acquires Begin Team, Aims to Accelerate the Evolution of its Content Operating System 

Opinion: Universal CMS? From a pragmatist, it’s not yet so "Universal"

andrew

Shopify - The global commerce platform

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

The global commerce platform

#ffffff

<hr /> A logo can be an incredibly divisive thing. Think about it: A person or business endeavors to crystallize its brand tenets with a singular pictographic touchpoint, balancing legibility with artistic flare – and hopefully communicating something about its purpose.Accomplishing that is a tall order. Then you realize everyone has an opinion. It makes the whole prospect of creating a good identity feel challenging and risky. And yet, it's a vital and elemental fixture in every brand ecosystem.In an age where a logo's price has been vastly diminished (you can buy one for peanuts on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.fiverr.com/">Fiverr</a> or use free tools to make one yourself), their value is conversely increasing. Why? Because good logos, reinforced by a cohesive brand architecture, can help break through the digital noise and build a solid foundation for integrated marketing programs. OK, but striking gold with a subtle “arrow” in your FedEx typography? Hard to replicate. Even more precarious are logo makeovers of established marks, which are often met with mixed fanfare. But when done right, a refresh can reinvigorate a brand’s perception and energize a moment of change.That was clearly part of the calculus for the <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/mach-alliance-expands-certification-scope-to-include-offerings-within-larger-vendors">MACH Alliance</a> this week. The not-for-profit industry body – dedicated to advocating for open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems – just unveiled its refreshed identity to the world. Along with the updated mark, which still manages to evoke some “quirkiness” while growing up (more on that in a bit), the Alliance revealed an updated mission statement that reflects its steadfast commitment as composable stewards for enterprises making the journey to MACH.In tandem, the Alliance announced several key initiatives to strengthen its position as a technology leader and reflect the maturity of MACH and composability across the broader market. As MACH technologies become a strategic mandate for more business leaders, the Alliance is staying in lockstep, dedicating its resources to supporting wider adoption around business considerations.To that end, the Alliance has elected a new board that includes its first business leader Chairperson: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobhowland/">Bob Howland</a>. As the former Chief Digital Officer at Dawn Foods, Howland will head up the Alliance’s Executive Board, providing the organization with external perspective to help bolster its strategy, align priorities, and reinforce its accountability and expectations as a neutral industry body.“The MACH Alliance is at a key inflection point,” Howland said. “These appointments and new mission and vision reflect the organization’s understanding that MACH principles are no longer radical but an established approach to enterprise business. Composability and MACH are the new norm, and the MACH Alliance must step up and support businesses to not only leverage but embrace the opportunity.”<h3 id="new-leaders-join-seasoned-board-members">New leaders join seasoned board members</h3>As part of this news package, the Alliance announced four appointments to its Executive Board, representing diverse backgrounds in both business and technology. Board members are staunch evangelists and ambassadors of MACH, vocalizing its benefits of open and transformative composable architectures. The Alliance board includes nine seats, with each appointee elected for two-year terms. Members went through a comprehensive nomination process that began in August, culminating with voting in September. The new board held its inaugural meeting in Chicago last week.In addition to Howland’s appointment as Chairperson, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen">Casper Rasmussen</a> – global SVP at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.valtech.com/en-us/">Valtech</a> – was re-elected to the board and will remain as president of the Alliance. Rasmussen drives the association’s global strategy and has been chartered with leading the Alliance’s continued growth and revamped mission. Board members <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jguthmann/">Jasmin Guthmann</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/krithikaganesamoorthi/">Krithika Ganesamoorthi</a> have also been appointed as co-vice presidents who will serve on the Executive Board’s leadership team. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dom-selvon-1488958/">Dom Selvon</a>, CTO at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.applydigital.com/">Apply Digital</a>, was also re-elected to the board and appointed as a co-vice president. Selvon has made great strides in supporting the Alliance’s Technology Councils and Interoperability Taskforce.In terms of new members, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberlymatenchuk/">Kimberly Matenchuk</a>, managing director at <a target="_blank" href="https://cloudinary.com/">Cloudinary</a>, has joined the board. Matenchuk is based in the UK and will lead the Alliance’s DEIB strategy – including the fast-growing <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/mach-alliance-empowers-gender-equality-with-new-women-in-mach-deib-scoring-tool">Women in MACH initiative</a>. Additionally, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/malteubl/">Malte Ubl</a>, CTO at <a target="_blank" href="https://vercel.com/">Vercel</a>, will bring a new voice to the board, providing high-level expertise on AI and MACH’s role in working with innovative technologies. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/amertali/">Amer Ali</a>, VP of finance at <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/netlify">Netlify</a>, has also been appointed as the Alliance’s Treasurer.<h3 id="leveling-up-the-mach-mission">Leveling up the MACH mission</h3>As the Alliance rounds the corner to its fifth year in service, the organization has overhauled its mission, vision, and branding to reflect its maturity – and support the scaling demand for open, composable technology solutions. The MACH Alliance has seen consistent growth since 2020, partnering with industry leaders like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mach-alliance-announces-paypal-is-the-first-company-to-join-new-supporter-membership-category-301866133.html">Paypal</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://machalliance.org/newsroom/j-p-morgan-joins-mach-alliance-fueling-the-importance-of-composability-in-a-future-ready-digital-ecosystem">J.P. Morgan</a>. It has also expanded beyond its European roots to North America – which represents a much larger addressable market for MACH solutions. The Alliance has also <a target="_blank" href="https://machalliance.org/newsroom/mach-alliance-announces-mach-impact-award-winners">championed</a> high-impact global companies leveraging MACH like <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/clarks-kraft-heinz-take-top-honors-in-mach-impact-awards-at-mach-three">Kraft Heinz and Clarks</a>.To maintain pace and better serve its members and the market, the Alliance has been steadily expanding its educational programs, tools, and community resources – something we’ve covered over the last year. Its foundational learning platform, <a target="_blank" href="https://machalliance.org/ridemach">rideMACH</a>, has seen over 1,100 registrations since its launch, reflecting the growing interest among industry professionals to elevate their MACH skillset.Also worth noting: the Alliance launched an <a target="_blank" href="https://machalliance.org/interoperability">Interoperability Hub</a> for resources and best practices, which it plans to fortify into 2025. Looking ahead to next year, the Alliance has also chosen Chicago for its <a target="_blank" href="https://machalliance.org/events/composable-conference-25">MACH FOUR flagship event</a>. “The Composable Conference” is slotted for April 22-24, and we can expect more details over the coming months. If you’re curious about attending MACH FOUR, you can <a target="_blank" href="https://machalliance.org/events/composable-conference-25">register your interest</a> now.<h3 id="refreshing-a-logo-from-its-“rebellious”-roots-">Refreshing a logo from its “rebellious” roots </h3>It’s hard to imagine the MACH Alliance without its signature graffiti-style logo. Suffice it to say, the 1.0 version captured the zeitgeist of the composable movement as it roared on the scene. It was irreverent, disruptive, a little pedestrian, and reflected a rebellious spirit that crystallized its intent. There was also an organic fluidity and a humanizing quality that counterbalanced its representation of tech. All unique attributes of a memorable mark. <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:48.51%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/10/mach-alliance-1.png" alt="" /></figure> At the same time, I recall some voices that “mocked” the MACH styling, suggesting it was too cavalier for a professional organization. That might have played into some of the decision-making as it introduced its new graphical solution.To be clear, it's not a wholesale transformation; the colors have been maintained, and other dimensions of the brand template are intact. Does the refreshed text make it a bit more predictable? To a degree. At its core, it feels more “tech conventional,” normalized from a radical state. On the plus side, this renders the logo more legible than its predecessor. The edges are sharper and stronger, and the whole mark evokes maturity. While it's a far cry from its previous skin, it still manages to be a little funky with its interconnected typography. But here’s where it shines: the configuration embodies composability. The letters represent an amalgam of diverse geometries orchestrated by uniform typography. That's not overly intuitive on its face, but this video helps outline the blueprint of shapes defining its structure: <figure class="media"><div data-oembed-url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiw4QhOWMfQ"><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:100%;height:0;padding-bottom:56.2493%"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aiw4QhOWMfQ" style="position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;top:0;left:0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div></figure> While this evolution sheds some of the rambunctiousness of its heritage, it still retains a quirky sensibility – like it’s dressing for the office but still wearing its Chuck Taylors. And that might be exactly the right blend of visual flare to reflect where the Alliance is in its lifecycle: a place where business and technology considerations are coexisting and even thriving.I didn't intend to get hyper-analytical about logo aesthetics. But again, there's more value and subtext here than we might realize. It's evident that a lot of careful thought and creativity went into this transformation, even if it meant departing from a well-established identity. It's also worth reminding ourselves that change is always uncomfortable. It should shift us, force us to reexamine things. With this brand refresh, it’s clear that the MACH Alliance is aiming to do just that – while maintaining aspects of a legacy that ignited growth.In a digital ecosystem where many software platforms and products are embracing composability, this grand experiment – born from a place of disruption – is looking for new ways to deliver guidance, expertise, and value. And of course, evoke trust while remaining relevant to its members and the market. There's more to it than a logo. Bringing business stakeholders into the mix further reinforces the Alliance's commitment to growing beyond its original charter. Another reason why change is good. For what it’s worth, this is a bold and successful move for an organization that has never been afraid to shake things up.  <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <h4 id="sitecore-symposium-2024"><a href=" https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25">Sitecore Symposium</a> 2024</h4>October 15-18, 2024 – Nashville, TennesseeStandout digital experiences start here! Sitecore Symposium is the leading industry conference for digital professionals to learn about digital experience management, digital customer experience, and related marketing topics. Featuring 100+ sessions, 40+ top customer brands, and Sitecore's largest gathering of marketing leaders, technologists, and our partner ecosystem. <a target="_blank" href="https://symposium.sitecore.com/">Get your tickets today!</a> <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-2025"><a href=" https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25">CMS Kickoff 2025</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">so secure your tickets today.</a>

New Logo, New Leaders: MACH Alliance Announces Key Board Appointments and Brand Refresh

Sonic Boom: Sitecore Surges Past $500M in ARR. Here’s Why It Matters

<hr /> AI is still raging like a fever – even if the temperature isn’t spiking quite as high as a year ago. Don't get me wrong: the market's still being greeted with a healthy dose of daily innovation. We're even seeing up-and-comers like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.artificialintelligence-news.com/news/cerebras-vs-nvidia-inference-tool-promises-higher-performance/">Cerebras challenging the Goliath Nvidia</a>. And while opportunities persist, some of the future potential is also clouded by the murky waters of an evolving regulatory landscape. Europe has been the most audacious on the policy front with the shaping of its signature <a target="_blank" href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/en/article/20230601STO93804/eu-ai-act-first-regulation-on-artificial-intelligence">EU AI Act</a>. But just last week, California Governor Gavin Newsome announced <a target="_blank" href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/09/29/governor-newsom-announces-new-initiatives-to-advance-safe-and-responsible-ai-protect-californians/">a spate of new initiatives</a> to advance safe and responsible AI – which will likely give way to similar manifestations in other states. This makes it all a moving target.Despite the legislative barriers, one can’t refute the impact that Generative AI has had on almost every application in the technology ecosystem. In our corner of the CMS and DXP verses, content creators have benefitted from enhanced productivity and efficiency with the introduction of in-app tools and workflows powered <a target="_blank" href="https://openai.com/">primarily by OpenAI</a>.But it’s not just the foundational tools. The entire spectrum of plugins, extensions, and even dev environments have integrated some measure of GenAI into their offerings. Even elemental WYSIWYG editors <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/tinymce-brings-advanced-ai-to-cms-text-editing-interview-with-fredrik-danielsson-elise-bentley">like TinyMCE</a> – used by several CMSes – have woven GenAI capabilities into their offerings.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.netlify.com/">Netlify</a> – the modern web development platform – has also joined the automation chorus, announcing the addition of an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.netlify.com/blog/introducing-ai-assisted-publishing">AI-Assisted Publishing</a> feature for marketers and content creators that simplifies the tedious task of managing adjustments to headless or even traditional CMSes.  Part of the solution rests with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.netlify.com/platform/create/">Netlify’s Visual Editor</a>, which further codifies the expansion of these tools for composable architectures. I’ve written extensively about the rampant <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/optimizely-introduces-new-saas-cms-with-visual-builder-for-marketers">rise of visual editors and builders</a> in previous articles, and Netlify sites are another example of where users are able to work with structured content in an easy-to-use visual context.Along with the new AI capabilities, the company also introduced <a target="_blank" href="https://www.netlify.com/blog/launching-async-workloads">Netlify Async Workloads</a> for streamlining a host of processes, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.netlify.com/blog/introducing-netlify-extensions">Netlify Extensions</a> – which makes customizing workflows and personalizing the interfaces within the Netlify app even easier. The cohort of new capabilities reflects the market’s continued drift towards more composable web architectures, giving developers greater choice and control.The enhancements were all unveiled during the keynote address at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.netlify.com/compose/">Netlify Compose 2024</a> in San Francisco by the platform’s CEO and co-founder, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathias-biilmann-christensen-a5a3805/">Mathias Biilmann Christensen.</a> The Compose conference also gives Netlify’s ecosystem of partners the opportunity to showcase innovation. Example: players like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7247676894051999744/">Jamsocket launched its new partner extension</a>, offering a ready-made connection for <a target="_blank" href="https://jamsocket.com/y-sweet">Jamsocket and Y-Sweet</a> services for the Netlify ecosystem.<h3 id="turning-unstructured-content-into-ready-to-publish-pages">Turning unstructured content into ready-to-publish pages</h3>Netlify’s AI-Assisted Publishing addresses the continued pressure on content teams to provide high-quality, high-volume content at breakneck speed. Now, armed with Netlify’s AI-powered capabilities, marketers and creatives can move quickly and seamlessly from ideas to publishable content.Netlify’s use case is simple: content creators often start outside a CMS, using tools like <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/google-cloud-platform">Google Docs</a> or <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/notion">Notion</a>. Converting their creative work into something “suitable” for web publication is still a tedious task, requiring hands-on adjustment of their headless CMS or even legacy, template-based CMS to meet their requirements. AI-Assisted Publishing automates the rigors of moving content from its outside source to a site, transforming unstructured elements into something that works for a production page. It automates the conversion of (for example) your Google Doc for a blog post into web pages – retaining the formatting and links and maintaining corporate brand guidelines and components to keep things cohesive.  <figure class="media"><div data-oembed-url="https://youtu.be/YndziNqJaKw?si=8P0n0bjXzWovKGYW"><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:100%;height:0;padding-bottom:56.2493%"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YndziNqJaKw" style="position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;top:0;left:0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div></figure> AI-Assisted Publishing effectively mitigates the complexities of managing multiple tools. It transposes content into a polished, web-ready first draft that can be edited and published without the hassle of supporting yet another CMS integration – and instead relies on Netlify’s Visual Editor to shape experiences with structured content. At its core, Visual Editor is designed for composable architectures and is compatible with any site framework and API-enabled content source. Netlify’s Visual Editor provides some decent flexibility. Users can choose a template designed to work with a <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">headless CMS</a> like <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/contentful">Contentful</a> or <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/sanity">Sanity</a>, or even without one – instead relying on Git to manage content versions (sometimes referred to as a Git CMS).AI-Assisted Publishing is ideal for things like blog posts, company announcements, product updates, and other use cases. It effectively reduces the time from ideation to publication, allowing teams to focus on strategic goals rather than tedious and repetitive tasks, which are common across content ops that rely on Google Docs or Notion as a source. <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:88.26%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/10/netlify-image-1.jpg" alt="" /></figure>Netlify's AI-Assisted Publishing offers personalization with custom audience personas Along the same lines, AI-Assisted Publishing is a great way to develop and manage critical marketing touchpoints like landing pages, streamling page creation with pre-designed components that are on-brand. It also provides some slick personalization capabilities that go beyond the typical A/B testing paradigms, allowing users to tailor content for multiple audiences and personas from a single source. Just select a target audience from the built-in picker or configure a specific audience persona, and you're off to the races. AI-Assisted Publishing is currently available in a private beta, but you can <a target="_blank" href="https://www.netlify.com/ai-assisted-publishing-private-beta/">sign up for it here</a>.<h3 id="sustaining-business-operations-with-durable-workloads">Sustaining business operations with durable workloads</h3>As mentioned, Netlify also introduced a few other surprises at its Compose conference, including the new <a target="_blank" href="https://www.netlify.com/blog/launching-async-workloads">Async Workloads</a> service. This nifty innovation empowers developers to construct durable, event-driven workflows seamlessly on any Netlify site.Why does durability matter? Quite simply: stuff breaks. APIs go down. Systems time out and yes, people screw up. Durable workloads enable businesses with more confidence around continuity, offering unparalleled reliability without the hassle of managing additional infrastructure, such as queues, workers, or state management.Async Workloads brings durability to serverless runtimes on Netlify, providing greater resiliency to business operations. Developers can write functions in the same manner as other serverless functions to initiate processes. Netlify takes care of the scaling, retries, future scheduling, and the other morass that can tie things up – ensuring your workloads run seamlessly. As systems get more complex, reliability becomes a precious commodity. Async Workloads helps mitigate this by letting developers build workloads and focus on critical tasks while the underlying system orchestrates everything with durability as a cornerstone. That bridges the reliability gap – and delivers value from end to end. <h3 id="create-more-powerful-customized-workflows">Create more powerful customized workflows</h3>Like a marketplace for added functionality, the new crop of Netlify Extensions allows users to choose from a growing library of ready-made integrations and specialized features that extend the value of the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.netlify.com/platform/">Netlify platform</a>. It also provides developers and partners with a sandbox to build their own extensions using Netlify’s SDK.What’s great about the Netlify Extensions is how seamless they are. With a single click, you can integrate with popular tools like <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/digitalocean">DigitalOcean</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://supabase.com/">Supabase</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://launchdarkly.com/">LaunchDarkly</a>, or Contentful. You can also leverage new platform features such as Async Workloads, Skew Protection, or Edge-Side Includes.You can explore all the available extensions in Netlify’s in-app Extensions Directory. Once installed, all your sites can take advantage of a given extension’s capabilities – and if it includes a connector, it’s ready to configure through <a target="_blank" href="https://www.netlify.com/platform/connect/">Netlify Connect</a>, allowing you to integrate with your data sources with ease.  <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:84.19%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/10/netlify-image-2.jpg" alt="" /></figure>Netlify Extensions offers a library of integrations and connectors Another cool feature: the Extension UI also enables developers to build on top of the Netlify platform to create immersive experiences for users and teams. The SDK also allows users to build extensions for a host of other applications, including an OAuth component that streamlines authentication.<h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>A frequent topic at the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/groups/cms-experts">Boye &amp; Company CMS Experts Group</a> meetings is where and how content is created. It’s true that many CMS platforms have conquered the mystical barrier of providing a delightful editing experience. But not all content is created equally, nor does it start life in the same place. Many of us still begin outside the CMS, using more foundational authoring tools to write press releases or blog posts before moving into an environment that allows formatting and publishing as a web page. As such, Netlify is further bridging the gap between ideation and publication. By eliminating the tedious task of moving from Google Docs or Notion to a finished page – and applying GenAI to further streamline the process – it’s doubling down on its value to developers and marketers. On top of that, the addition of intuitive personalization capabilities is further upping the ante on its extensibility. We’ve talked a lot about visual editors over the last few months, and having a dynamic tool in its development environment is extending Netlify’s value in multiple directions for both developers and content creators. Add in its Async Workloads and Extensions, and the platform is demonstrating the real scope of its innovation as it looks to build more meaningful partnerships in a competitive and composable landscape. To that end, Netlify is further broadening its extensibility by integrating with more traditional DXPs <a target="_blank" href="https://www.optimizely.com/apps/netlify/">like Optimizely</a>, providing a pathway to run its SaaS CMS on Netlify. It codifies how composable architectures are becoming more widely adopted and accelerated by best-of-breed platforms – enabling the transformation to a more strategic and modular stack. Netlify's philosophical foundation of composable MACH principles is what earned it an inaugural role as a <a target="_blank" href="https://machalliance.org/newsroom/mach-alliance-announces-mongodb-and-netlify-as-first-members-of-new-enabler-category">MACH Alliance Enabler</a> in 2021.It's worth reminding that Netlify was an early advocate of separating frontend design from backend business processes. Its vision of uniting components of the modern decoupled web and accelerating the development of scalable websites and apps has proven effective, helping them raise significant funding to power the growth of its Jamstack ecosystem. Today, that translates into nearly limitless choices for designing rich web apps and customer experiences – and these new features represent the next wave of innovation along that vision. <hr /> <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-2025"><a href=" https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25">CMS Kickoff 2025</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">so secure your tickets today.</a>

Netlify Unveils AI-Assisted Publishing and Other Enhancements at Netlify Compose 2024 Conference

<hr /> The mantle of “CMO” is a bit of an albatross. Much like the ancient mariner, anyone fuddling in this C-level role might find the journey replete with danger.  To be sure, it’s an important job, shouldering the massive responsibility of driving revenue and swimming in the deep end of a vast data pool. It also has the distinct reputation of being the C-level position with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.marketingweek.com/cmo-tenure-falls/">the shortest tenure</a>.There are numerous reasons for this, one of which is burnout. It’s not for the faint of heart, as Chief Marketing Officers are often saddled with breathtaking responsibilities and expectations – the kind where sleep might be an elusive dream. While the CMO was once considered a less important position in the pantheon of corporate leadership, it has certainly earned an essential role. <a href="it’s%20not%20for%20the%20faint%20of%20heart,%20often%20saddled%20with%20breathtaking%20responsibilities%20where%20sleep%20might%20often%20be%20a%20luxury.">According to one study</a>, significantly more CEOs are ranking their marketing departments as “best in class,” a perception driven by CMOs who deliver on business imperatives. As enterprise leaders rely more on visibility powered by analytics and data, CMOs are also taking on a new role as Chief Data Officers. This is thrusting their value into the stratosphere – and their pay packages to boot. The hiring or transition of any C-level leader is a bonafide big deal. But there’s a strong signal being sent when a CMO is enrolled, particularly one with a high-caliber skillset and proven pedigree. It’s a throat-clearing moment that prepares the market for visible change, particularly around how a brand positions itself in an increasingly dense field of competition.  That’s what Storyblok’s hiring of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/markwheeler/">Mark Wheeler</a> represented this week: a full-speed-ahead, no-holds-barred investment in growing its market share. If the CMS’s <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/storyblok-is-writing-its-next-chapter-with-an-80m-series-c-heres-why-it-matters">recent $80 million Series C</a> represents a beachhead for planning its strategy, Mark is the general arriving on the scene to take the castle. Can he do it? Ah, only time will tell. There are certainly major headwinds: cooling economic conditions, tighter IT budgets, and upstream and downstream competitors that continue to befuddle buyers with a confusing morass of messages. Oh… and that pesky U.S. presidential election. Talk about instability. Still, if Mark’s history is any indicator, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominikangerer/">CEO Dominik Angerer</a> should have plenty to look forward to. In my recent discussion with Dominik, we talked at length about Storyblok’s next chapter, which includes ambitious plans to grow its U.S. market footprint. This was underscored by a shift towards a “modern content management system” as a positioning foundation. By doubling down on this clarity, the company could have a key advantage in staking its market differentiation – something a CMO will need to harness, and only a seasoned and successful one can unleash with the right strategies to cut through the noise. Given Mark’s history, proximity to the CMS industry, and immersion in the category of content, he might be the right person for the job. “Having experienced leaders who can help us navigate the opportunities and challenges of our next phase of growth is critical to our success,” Dominik said. “Mark knows the CMS industry inside out and has already been on the part of the journey we’re about to embark on. His experience will help us properly educate the market on the transformative impact Storyblok has throughout the entire content lifecycle.”<h3 id="leaning-on-proven-success-at-adobe-and-sitecore">Leaning on proven success at Adobe and Sitecore</h3>It seems that (almost) all roads lead in or out of <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/sitecore">Sitecore</a>. That speaks to the platform’s longevity and omnipresence, and its undeniable impact on the shape and course of the CMS industry at large.A big part of Mark’s origin story was forged at Sitecore, beginning as VP of Marketing and establishing a reputation as a leading B2B tech marketer in Europe. He later assumed dominion over EMEA and APAC, ultimately running the worldwide field and partner marketing out of London and San Francisco.This encompassed four years, all at a time of significant change across the CMS landscape. Prior to his Sitecore heritage, Mark also ran EMEA marketing at <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_EMC">EMC (Dell),</a> accelerating growth across mid-market, enterprise, government, and via the service provider community with the EMC portfolio of products. Before that, Mark spent seven years at the goliath that is <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/adobe-experience-manager">Adobe</a> in a marketing director role. During his tenure, he achieved some innovative outcomes like establishing an in-house demand gen team and leading a channel transformation strategy that significantly impacted sales bookings.Most recently, Mark was VP of Marketing at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nutanix.com/">Nutanix</a>, a cloud infrastructure software provider. That was followed by his first CMO stint at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.leanix.net/">LeanIX</a>, which was <a target="_blank" href="https://www.leanix.net/en/company/press/leanix-is-now-part-of-sap">acquired by SAP</a> during his tenure. That led to a transitional CMO role under the SAP banner, and ultimately to a break before taking the CMO job at Storyblok.Without question, Mark has a stellar resume – one that would make any tech company anxious to lock down this talent. It’s worth noting that he has also been recognized as a <a target="_blank" href="https://hottopics.ht/awards/cmo-100">Global B2B CMO 100</a> Award Winner in 2021, 2023, and 2024. Add this to his long tenures at both Adobe and Sitecore, and he is well-positioned to drive the marketing and business objectives at Storyblok.<h3 id="the-continued-struggle-to-serve-both-developers-and-marketers">The continued struggle to serve both developers and marketers</h3>Go ahead. Do a drive-by of every major DXP or CMS website, and you’ll see this line somewhere: “Finally, a platform that unites both developers and marketers…”It’s one thing to say it, and quite another to deliver on it. And in an era where <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">headless CMS</a> platforms are still working to mend the fences with content editors and marketing professionals, a lot of these statements still feel hollow. And it’s not for a lack of trying: many platforms are making headway on appealing to marketing folk with a bit of “visual editing fairy dust," and the results are beginning to speak for themselves. If only it was a simple as solving a technology problem. As Mark noted in the company’s press release, the CMS industry has come a long way, baby – but that struggle between devs and marketers is still palpable. Collaborating from concept to completion remains elusive in many systems and organizations (it’s not all on the tech), and Mark has a clear line of sight on where the breaks can be bridged and futureproofed for things like AI. “The market requires solutions that dismantle silos, optimize workflows, and accelerate the content lifecycle, making it more adaptable and ready for the era of generative AI,” he said. “Storyblok is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this by offering a platform that empowers businesses to create, manage, and deliver content at unprecedented speed and scale. By focusing on these advantages, we can drive substantial revenue growth and market share.”It won’t be easy. We’ve been struggling with this for many years, and while other challenges like interoperability have been trimmed with APIs, the human challenges of working together on experiences seem like the ever-present last mile to success. This seems to be a core focus for Mark as he takes the reins. “I'm ready to amplify these strengths by demonstrating how Storyblok empowers teams to achieve extraordinary things,” he further noted. “By truly understanding the challenges faced by content creators and developers, we can position Storyblok as the go-to platform for building exceptional digital experiences.”<h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>As I mentioned a few paragraphs back, the hiring of a CMO is a bellwether moment. It’s a sea change that can prime the engines for a company’s brand, and I think we can expect to see some clear signals right out of the gate.This is a pivotal moment for Storyblok. When I saw their demo competition at the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/">Boye &amp; Company CMS Kickoff</a> in 2023, I was blown away by the quality of the product UI and its intuitive simplicity – something they have continued to build on. It has also remained tacitly composable in its posture, allowing for more expansive growth within MACH-architected stacks (the company has been a MACH Alliance member since 2021).Despite everything it’s doing right – including a staggering Series C windfall led by U.S. investors – Storyblok’s greatest challenge might be around choice. With significant competition across the market, including DXPs that are now selling their product in a more composable fashion, the CMS needs to double down on what makes it unique. Some of that is wrapped up in AI and automation, as well as novel new features like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.storyblok.com/docs/guide/in-depth/ideation-room">its Ideation Room.</a> For my money, it's what they've always done well: understanding the customer and expressing that through their product experience. It's a big reason why Dominik Angerer claims he's never lost a customer to churn. Focusing on these attributes is where marketing can be a force multiplier. The other red flag is the persistent and lingering confusion on the headless battlefield. While it all feels less like a “race to the middle” and more like a widespread evolution (heck, we even have a “Universal CMS” entering the fray), I think it’s smart that Storyblok is reinforcing its core sediment as a modern content management system. The market desperately needs sage guidance, and cutting back on the over-engineered experiences and marketing lexicon is the best way to see the forest through the trees and deliver some much-needed clarity to buyers.As Mark Wheeler takes the wheel (sorry, it had to be done), driving that clarity will make all the difference.  <hr /> <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-2025"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">CMS Kickoff 2025</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, so secure your tickets today.

Storyblok just hired a CMO with Adobe and Sitecore pedigree. Here’s what it signals for the future

Publish and pray? No way. Uniform's Visual CMS + Experience Manager is heaven-sent for marketers

Yo Ho! Gartner’s New Magic Quadrant for Search and Product Discovery is a Compass for CX

WP Engine - #1 Wordpress

Build and manage amazing WordPress, WooCommerce, and headless sites on the #1 WordPress platform.

A Smarter Way to WordPress

Explore a wide range of informative articles on composable, insights, and industry updates. Stay informed and ahead of the curve with our diverse collection of news and posts covering the latest trends and developments in the industry