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

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

cms-critic-staff

Illustration of shipping containers being stacked.

Just as we're recovering from a Thanksgiving turkey coma, the cloud is served with all the trimmings at the annual <a href="https://reinvent.awsevents.com/" target="_blank">AWS re:Invent</a> conference in Las Vegas.
If you haven't attended their annual "winter wonderland" of new services, it's an early Christmas delivery of new technologies from the reigning cloud leader. This includes everything from new AI and IoT services to satellite "<a href="https://aws.amazon.com/ground-station/" target="_blank">ground station-as-a-service</a>" capabilities (which can presumably track Santa as he traverses the globe).
While much of the fare at re:Invent is the domain of developers and DevOps professionals, the <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace" target="_blank">AWS Marketplace</a> has grown to include a much deeper bench of digital experience players – specifically in their new <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/campaigns/dcx/" target="_blank">DCX (digital customer experience) category</a>. This collection of marketing and advertising technologies includes a stack of content, ad tech, CRM, customer 360, and other platform providers that fill a business app void that AWS has struggled to fill. Now, it seems that lump of coal is producing a few diamonds.
At re:Invent, content management and digital experience platforms aren't typically the focus of attention. But the first day featured an innovative new offering with just a handful of launch partners – and among them was <a href="https://www.solodev.com/" target="_blank">Solodev</a>, an enterprise CMS and cloud app platform built for AWS. The company announced that customers can now procure <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/prodview-s7tpcn3m7fuf6?ref_=srh_res_product_title" target="_blank">Solodev CMS for Kubernetes</a> – its popular enterprise content management system – in the AWS Marketplace as part of Amazon's new "Containers Anywhere" program. 
According to Solodev, the new contract pricing provides customers with greater choice over their infrastructure options, allowing them to quickly and easily subscribe to Solodev’s CMS software and deploy in their own AWS account or in a pre-existing on-premises Kubernetes cluster. This helps reduce the cost and friction associated with purchasing a cloud-first enterprise content management system regardless of the infrastructure – whether it’s a Kubernetes cluster on AWS or a pre-existing infrastructure such as HP or VMware. 
By providing a more seamless buying experience in AWS Marketplace, Solodev now offers an easier way to add their CMS almost anywhere – giving marketing teams rich tools for building websites, apps, and API-driven solutions for running omnichannel content operations at enterprise scale.
<h2>Containers continue to drive digital transformation</h2>
As both commercial and public sector organizations invest in digital transformation, the cloud represents a significant opportunity for enhancing security, scalability, and redundancy while modernizing legacy systems. However, due to regulatory governance and other persistent requirements, some software must remain on-premises to meet compliance.
Containers have presented a new channel for making software more transportable to different environments, starting with local and moving to production in clusters. But developers and organizations need more – and with cloud providers like AWS, this has been a challenge with on-prem customers who want the ease of purchasing software in the AWS Marketplace while spinning up container images wherever they want.
Now, administrators can procure Solodev CMS for Kubernetes – a fully-containerized solution that customers can deploy to Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), Amazon EKS Anywhere, or any Kubernetes cluster – and manage their subscription through AWS Marketplace in the environment of their choice.
For a CMS player, Solodev has been pioneering a lot of innovation in both containers and serverless. Recently, the company <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/solodev-selected-as-cloud-consulting-partner-of-the-2022-special-olympics-usa-games/" target="_blank">announced the deployment of a completely serverless infrastructure</a> built on AWS for the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games, which will power a fan engagement app that serves thousands of concurrent users next June. Solodev's container solution leverages <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/fargate/" target="_blank">Amazon Fargate</a> and other services to enable a stateless app to run on multiple containers without virtual instances – reducing the overall costs while enabling unprecedented scalability.
<h2>Managing software licenses in the cloud at scale</h2>
According to Solodev, the new contract pricing in the AWS Marketplace is facilitated by its Solodev License Manager for AWS. This is a new product that's powered by the <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/license-manager/" target="_blank">AWS License Manager</a> and helps customers gain control over their cloud app license management – which helps reduce costs and provide governance over usage.  
Solodev CMS for Kubernetes will also deliver more predictable monthly pricing. Users can procure either cloud or on-premises options per node, with contract pricing in four tiers: monthly, annual, 24-month, or 36-month terms. This marks a significant shift in AWS utilization pricing for container products, which have only been available in hourly or annual options. The new pricing model gives administrators greater visibility around their budgeting and planning, aligning with more traditional models for procuring enterprise software.
“The new contract pricing in AWS Marketplace makes self-service enterprise CMS a reality,” said Shawn Moore, Chief Technology Officer at Solodev. “Offering Solodev CMS in-cloud or on-prem puts the power back in the hands of our customers, giving them a CMS that works anywhere and is built on container technology that’s designed to scale. We’re excited to add this incredible service to our AWS Marketplace listings, where enterprise and public sector organizations can procure everything on their own terms and build amazing websites, applications, and digital experiences.”
<h2>From content to crypto</h2>
Solodev’s new product joins a host of options available in the AWS Marketplace, including their <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/seller-profile?id=8e11c912-6253-41b8-b065-bf32bd27911b" target="_blank">Solodev CMS Lite, Professional, and Enterprise Editions</a>. All three are available with free trials and can be spun up in an AWS account in minutes via AWS Cloudformation. 
The evolution of Solodev as a pure CMS platform to a "cloud app ecosystem" has been more pronounced as of late. The company still appearsto be focused on supporting its core content management system and enabling users to build digital experiences with a <a href="https://www.magnolia-cms.com/blog/what-is-a-headless-cms.html" target="_blank">headless hybrid</a> set of features. However, the evolution continues with the launch of its new <a href="https://www.solodev.com/marketplace" target="_blank">Solodev Marketplace</a> in 2021 – an e-Commerce-like shopping experience that features a deep bench of cloud and digital marketing services that can be procured and connected in one place.
The new Solodev Marketplace also features <a href="https://www.solodev.com/news/solodev-now-offers-managed-blockchain-for-cardano-and-ethereum-for-building-high-utility-blockchain-and-crypto-apps-in-the-cloud.stml" target="_blank">blockchain and crypto services for Cardano and Ethereum</a>, two new additions that appear to signal their push into utility-based apps for smart contracts and custom cryptocurrencies. 
Solodev's launch in the AWS Marketplace for Containers Anywhere was announced at AWS re:Invent, and represents the company’s continued innovation in both product development and cloud infrastructure. As an AWS Advanced Technology Partner, Solodev has previously announced launch partnerships at re:Invent for the AWS Marketplace for Containers, as well as the <a href="https://www.solodev.com/news/solodev-achieves-aws-public-safety-disaster-response-competency-status.stml" target="_blank">AWS Public Safety and Disaster Response Competency</a>.
For more details, <a href="mailto:matt@solodev.com" target="_blank">contact Solodev today</a>.  
<h2>About Solodev</h2>
Solodev is an enterprise CMS and digital ecosystem for building custom cloud apps, from content to crypto. With Solodev, developers and organizations can launch amazing customer experiences, power omnichannel strategies, build and deploy blockchain apps, and collaborate on digital transformation. Solodev also provides DevOps, training, managed services, and 24/7 human support to help users succeed on their cloud journey. Solodev products – including CMS, Kubernetes, and Personalize – can be purchased on-demand in AWS Marketplace, through State and Federal contract vehicles, or online at <a href="http://www.solodev.com">www.solodev.com</a>

Solodev CMS for Kubernetes Now Available with Contract Pricing in AWS Marketplace for Containers Anywhere

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

Solodev CMS for Kubernetes Now Available with Contract Pricing in AWS Marketplace for Containers Anywhere