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

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

cms-critic-staff

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

Marketing 101: Managing Website Content on WordPress vs. Headless

jake-lumetta

Another day, another episode of the cybersecurity blues. And once again, WordPress has a starring role.
According to <a href="https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-linux-malware-uses-30-plugin-exploits-to-backdoor-wordpress-sites/" target="_blank">Bleeping Computer</a>, a previously unknown Linux malware is exploiting over 30 vulnerabilities in outdated WordPress plugins and themes to inject malicious JavaScript.
The malware targets both 32-bit and 64-bit Linux systems. The trojan’s main functionality is to hack WordPress sites using a set of hardcoded exploits until one is successful. The operator would then have remote command capabilities.
WordPress <a href="https://www.searchenginejournal.com/cms-market-share-june-2022/455912/#close" target="_blank">holds the largest share</a> of the global CMS market, with an estimated 43% of all websites powered by the open source platform. This makes it a big target for hackers, bad actors, and cybersecurity threats – and this is only the latest in a string of complex and nefarious attacks.
<h2>Using plugins and themes to control WordPress websites</h2>
There’s always a risk that any WordPress widget could be a ticking timebomb.
In 2022 alone, researchers <a href="https://siliconangle.com/2022/08/29/researchers-find-malicious-plugins-25000-wordpress-sites/" target="_blank">found malicious plugins</a> installed on over 25,000 WordPress websites. In most cases, the plugins were procured through legitimate marketplaces. Once added to a website, malware was injected by exploiting a vulnerability – much like this new Linux threat.
Thousands of WordPress websites may be affected by this threat. According to <a href="https://www.scmagazine.com/brief/vulnerability-management/many-wordpress-plugin-flaws-leveraged-by-novel-linux-malware" target="_blank">SC Media</a>, once attacked, an infected site may be used for phishing and <a href="https://www.imperva.com/learn/application-security/malvertising/" target="_blank">malvertising</a> campaigns, as well as malware distribution initiatives.
It’s worth checking your WordPress instances to see if any of these affected plugins are in use:
<ul>
<li>WP Live Chat Support Plugin</li>
<li>WordPress – Yuzo Related Posts</li>
<li>Yellow Pencil Visual Theme Customizer Plugin</li>
<li>Easysmtp</li>
<li>WP GDPR Compliance Plugin</li>
<li>Newspaper Theme on WordPress Access Control (CVE-2016-10972)</li>
<li>Thim Core</li>
<li>Google Code Inserter</li>
<li>Total Donations Plugin</li>
<li>Post Custom Templates Lite</li>
<li>WP Quick Booking Manager</li>
<li>Facebook Live Chat by Zotabox</li>
<li>Blog Designer WordPress Plugin</li>
<li>WordPress Ultimate FAQ (CVE-2019-17232 and CVE-2019-17233)</li>
<li>WP-Matomo Integration (WP-Piwik)</li>
<li>WordPress ND Shortcodes For Visual Composer</li>
<li>WP Live Chat</li>
<li>Coming Soon Page and Maintenance Mode</li>
<li>Hybrid</li>
</ul>
<h2>Combatting an evolving landscape of security threats</h2>
With hundreds of millions of active websites across the globe, hackers are having a field day.
According to <a href="https://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/98695-leading-cyber-risks-and-trends-in-2022" target="_blank">Security Magazine</a>, cyberattacks are on the rise and becoming more sophisticated by the day. Among the top threats in 2022, malware led the pack, representing the highest cost of damage to organizations.  
WordPress, as mentioned, continues to be a growing vector. Case in point: <a href="https://thehackernews.com/2022/12/new-gotrim-botnet-attempting-to-break.html" target="_blank">The Hacker News recently reported</a> on another <a href="https://www.fortinet.com/blog/threat-research/gotrim-go-based-botnet-actively-brute-forces-wordpress-websites" target="_blank">Go Trim botnet attack</a> that targeted WordPress website administrator accounts. Botnet malware has the capability to bypass traditional anti-bot protections, making sites even more vulnerable to the standard bot-evasion techniques.
But all is not lost. WordPress CMS administrators can fight back by adopting solid policies around their security practices. By vetting all plugin source code via an experienced DevSecOps team, many vulnerabilities can be uncovered before a plugin is pushed to production. This can augment strong password policies and the use of multi-factor authentication to reduce the surface area for would-be attackers.
WordPress websites can also be hosted in more secure environments like <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/wp-engine-releases-worlds-first-study-of-the-wordpress-economy-cites-awe-inspiring-numbers/">WP Engine</a>, which disallow certain plugins and themes due to security or performance issues.

New Linux Malware Targets Plugins to Backdoor WordPress CMS Websites

mk-patterson

The "Muskavation" of <a href="https://twitter.com/cmscritic" target="_blank">Twitter</a> continues, and the social media giant's newly anointed King is forcing many tech companies to reassess their remote work strategies.
Could this mean the end of <a href="https://zoom.us/" target="_blank">Zoom</a> calls in pajamas and board meetings interrupted by cats?
And who, exactly, is resuming their commute back to the office?
While the remote work phenomenon might be in the rearview for many employees, it seems that developers will continue to drive the trend – and even shape its future. This is according to a recent survey published by <a href="https://www.netlify.com/" target="_blank">Netlify</a>, a buzzworthy platform that's powering modern web development.
The company announced the findings last week from its third annual <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3700082-1&amp;h=3410126094&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fjamstack.org%2Fsurvey%2F2022%2F&amp;a=%C2%A0Jamstack+Community+Survey" target="_blank">Jamstack Community Survey</a>, the definitive pulse on global trends across the Jamstack web developer ecosystem. An acronym for Javascript, APIs, and Microservices (the "JAM"), <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-jamstack-static-site-generators-for-2021/">Jamstack</a> is an architectural model that decouples the web experience layer from the data and business logic – improving the flexibility, scalability, performance, and maintainability of modern apps. 
"The Jamstack Community Survey is created by the community, for the community," said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathias-biilmann-christensen-a5a3805/" target="_blank">Matt Biilmann</a>, co-founder and CEO of Netlify. "The findings will not only help developers learn from their peers but also help business leaders better understand how developers can be change makers within their organizations. They can learn about what tools and processes they need to be most impactful."
Along with prognosticating the future of remote work, the survey also revealed interesting data from developers about Web3, the growth of serverless and edge computing, and where content management systems fit in the mix.
<h2>For developers, remote work isn't going away </h2>
As Covid-19 lockdowns become a footnote in recent history, the impact of remote work is undeniable. In the last two years, it has cemented itself as "the new normal." 83% of developers claim to be working more than half the time remotely, while 76% say they've maintained or increased their frequency of working remotely in the last year.
What's clear in the survey results is that remote has become the preferred way of working for developers. In fact, 87% say they enjoy remote work – and an astounding 55% said they would quit their jobs if forced to return to an office. Someone should send Musk the memo. 
According to the survey, 33% of respondents have already changed jobs in the last year, increasing the likelihood that developers will not hesitate to "job-hop" if they need to. It's worth noting that remote work flexibility and career growth opportunities were the most frequently cited reasons for leaving a job, followed by compensation.
Clearly, developers value freedom a little more than finances. At least right now. 
<h2>Web3 hope... or hype?</h2>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web3" target="_blank">Web3</a> has captured the tech zeitgeist throughout 2022, with <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-18/bitcoin-responds-to-ftx-contagion-by-heading-for-a-weekly-gain" target="_blank">Bitcoin</a> starting the year at around $50,000 to the beleaguered <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/15/ftx-says-could-have-over-1-million-creditors-in-new-bankruptcy-filing.html" target="_blank">FTX exchange just declaring bankruptcy</a>. 
While the concept of a new web composed of decentralized blockchains (DeFi) is intriguing, Web3 has also been the target of mistrust and skepticism. According to the survey, 7% to 10% of developers have tried technologies like cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), but only 3% report using them regularly.
To help gauge the hope and the hype for the future, Netlify also asked developers to share their general attitudes toward Web3. The findings were mixed: 42% of developers either don't know what Web3 is (or don't care), while 31% had negative feelings about it.
Bottom line: the survey shows that Web3 is still a long way from mass adoption, and developers continue to be slow and cautious about embracing it. 
<h2>Building better web experiences with serverless and edge </h2>
Jamstack is continuing to evolve the modern web by helping developers build more dynamic websites. Developers are relying on cutting-edge cloud technologies to achieve this, including <a href="https://goserverless.solodev.com/" target="_blank">serverless computing</a>.
To that end, Netlify's 2022 Jamstack report found that serverless is now officially mainstream: 70% of developers report using it, up from 46% last year – a jaw-dropping adoption rate. Meanwhile, some 47% of developers are experimenting with edge dynamic sites, a sign of the continued innovation happening at the network edge.
Serverless technology is enabling Jamstack websites to grow their capabilities while maintaining the simplicity of development and deployment that is the hallmark of the platform.
<h2>Web frameworks and programming languages </h2>
To build dynamic web apps, developers require flexibility. They want to choose whichever web framework best suits their needs, and they now have plenty to choose from.
Among the landscape of options, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/uxpin-merge-review-sync-react-components-with-prototypes/">React</a> continues to be the overwhelming favorite, with 71% of developers reporting they build with it – 3% more than last year.
Riding React's popularity is <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-jamstack-static-site-generators-for-2021/">Next.js</a>, which uses React and is the overall most popular web framework. In fact, 1 in 2 developers (47%) say they have built sites using Next.js in the last year. However, competition remains strong: newer entrants like Astro (11%) and SolidJS (6%) have had promising starts, and Remix (10%) and Sveltekit (15%) have grown steadily year over year. Vite saw an 18% increase since 2021, with a third (32%) of developers using it.
"We're thrilled that a third of the Jamstack community is embracing Vite as they build for the modern web," said Matias Capeletto (aka Patak), from the Vite Core Team. "Vite's usage more than doubled in a year, thanks to being adopted by many modern app frameworks and web tools. The pace of innovation continues to accelerate. Vite's Rollup-based Plugin API allows the ecosystem to share solutions and collaborate in ways we haven't seen before."
Regarding programming language preferences, the great <a href="https://www.typescriptlang.org/" target="_blank">TypeScript</a> migration continues, with usage growing 110% in the last two years. 21% of developers now call TypeScript their primary programming language, while the number of developers who say the same about JavaScript has dropped from 63% to 53% in the same timeframe. However, JavaScript isn't going anywhere soon: 96% of developers say they use it, even if it isn't their primary choice.
<h2>The CMS of choice is still WordPress, but... </h2>
In the world of Content Management Systems (CMS), things continue to evolve. <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/wordpress-keeps-classical-editor-alive-acquires-frontity-to-expand-headless-capabilities/">WordPress</a> is still by far the biggest winner, with 37% of devs saying they use it – even though their reported satisfaction with it is lower than many alternatives.
Interestingly, WordPress as a stand-alone CMS is losing share. At the same time, 22% of respondents said that they're using WordPress as a headless API to power a Jamstack website – and that number is growing.
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/storybloks-cms-report-shows-enterprises-are-still-scared-of-omnichannel-content-experiences/">Storyblok</a>, a newcomer to the survey, reached 9% usage amongst respondents, a strong showing for the up-and-coming <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless CMS</a>. 
"More and more developers realize the potential of headless architecture in building and deploying better web experiences," said Dominik Angerer, CEO and founder of Storyblok. "At the same time, we believe that the content team utilizing the power of Jamstack with a headless CMS like Storyblok gets the content tools they need and love for creating great experiences on the frontend."
To explore the findings in more detail, you can view the <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3700082-1&amp;h=4098052836&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fjamstack.org%2Fsurvey%2F2022%2F&amp;a=full+methodology+of+the+survey" target="_blank">full methodology of the survey</a>.
<h2 class="wcag-arialevel-3">About Netlify</h2>
Netlify is the platform your developers love for building highly-performant and dynamic websites, e-commerce stores and web apps. By uniting an extensive ecosystem of technologies, services and APIs into one workflow, Netlify unlocks new levels of team productivity, while saving time and money. As pioneers of the Jamstack movement, Netlify brings together all modern web frameworks, serverless functions and edge computing into one platform to deliver unmatched user experiences. Millions of developers and businesses build with Netlify, from Fortune 500 companies like Unilever and Verizon to companies changing our digital experiences like Peloton and Twilio. Get started for free at <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3700082-1&amp;h=2291442546&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.netlify.com%2F&amp;a=netlify.com" target="_blank">netlify.com</a>.

Netlify Publishes Jamstack Community Survey, Shows Developers are Driving the Future of Remote Work

Image of the Netlify logo with the icon and text against a dark blue background.

It's been a long, hot summer. Everywhere. So it goes without saying that September is a welcome sign of cooler months ahead.
Speaking of cool, we followed some notable news throughout the month of August. We started with Storyblok's <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/storyblok-launches-new-cms-experience-to-shape-the-future-of-digital-storytelling/">launch of a new CMS experience</a> that aims to reshape the future of digital storytelling. We also dug into the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/salesforce-unveils-composable-storefront-a-digital-commerce-solution-to-help-retailers-go-headless-fast/">Salesforce Composable Storefront</a>, a new digital commerce solution designed to help retailers go headless faster than ever – and another signal that the composable movement is continuing to build steam. 
Finally, we had an <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">exclusive interview</a> with Casper Rasmussen, the new president of the MACH Alliance. He sat down with Matt Garrepy, one of our contributors, to chat about the future of composable, the role of headless, and what's next for the MACH Alliance and its 60+ members. 
As with all things "autumn," change is in the air. Economic forecasts remain uncertain, and many organizations are looking to 2023 with trepidation. While the M&amp;A cycle may have been a little quieter over the summer months, we're still tracking innovation and growth across the CMS and DXP market sectors – and we'll be featuring a number of exclusive interviews with industry leaders over the coming months.
Let's bid summer adieu with a few newsworthy nuggets to read with your pumpkin-spiced latte:
<h2>WordPress Homepage Gets a Fresh New Design</h2>
OK, so maybe this isn't a groundbreaking piece of news. But a redesign of a website is always an opportunity for a brand or company to "clear its throat" before it has something to say. 
That might be the case for <a href="https://wordpress.org/" target="_blank">WordPress</a>, which has certainly done its share of innovating over the past few years – especially with the introduction of <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/gutenberg-2-years-later-is-wordpress-better-off/">Gutenberg</a>. Now, the open source juggernaut will be greeting us with a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2022/07/08/project-kickoff-wordpress-org-homepage-and-download-page-redesign/" target="_blank">fresh, new jazzy design</a> on its WordPress.org website. 
<img style="max-width:1000px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/08/wordpress-new-design.webp" alt="WordPress new design" />
The <a href="https://wordpress.org/" target="_blank">new homepage</a> brings more attention to WordPress's benefits and experience while highlighting the community and resources to get started on the platform. Meanwhile, the <a href="https://wordpress.org/download/" target="_blank">new download page</a> greets visitors with a keen layout that simplifies the flow and presents both the download and hosting options right at the top.
Overall, a pretty sharp design solution. And no surprise: it's powered by WordPress. 
<h2>Optimizely Presents Opticon 2022: Applying the Science of Growth to Digital Experience Creation</h2>
<img style="max-width:1000px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/08/opticon22_savethedate_ads_teaser_1200x628.png" alt="Opticon 2022 Teaser" />
Looking for the optimal conference to attend this fall?
Optimizely, a leading digital experience platform (DXP) provider, announced its first in-person annual user conference, <a href="https://www.optimizely.com/opticon/" target="_blank">Opticon 2022</a>. The event will take place October 3-5 in scenic San Diego (if you're in town, make sure you hit the <a href="https://sandiegozoowildlifealliance.org/" target="_blank">Zoo</a> - it's spectacular). Opticon will showcase how customers and partners are continuously "optimizing" their digital experiences across all channels to drive customer intimacy and business growth.
According to Optimizely, the stakes have never been higher when it comes to competing for customer attention. Businesses need sound strategies to navigate evolving market complexities, advance digital journeys, and elevate future-forward solutions to inspire teams and supercharge growth – resulting in strong, lasting customer relationships. Attendees at Opticon 2022 will hear from marketers, digital leaders, and developers who are achieving these outcomes by leaning into powerful experimentation and frictionless creativity to drive better brand experiences and accelerate revenue growth.
"To be competitive today, marketers need to do more than 'business as usual.' In a rapidly changing world, complexity is the enemy of digital marketing and great digital experiences," said Alex Atzberger, CEO at Optimizely. "To meet your customers every day and adapt, you need data and knowledge about your audience, what resonates with them, when they want to engage, and how they want to be marketed to. Great digital experiences, backed by experimentation and data-driven insights, are what enable continuous possibilities and lead to long-term growth. At Opticon 2022, we're excited to bring leading innovators, marketers, and entrepreneurs to the stage to showcase how applying a scientific method allows you to stay ahead of the curve, amidst an ever-evolving state of customer expectations."
If that content doesn't sound enticing enough, Optimizely is going for the slam-dunk with its celebrity keynote by Earvin "Magic" Johnson, who will share his experiences on what it takes to succeed in a digital-first, customer-centric business landscape. As an NBA legend and advocate for Black entrepreneurship, Johnson will explore how his lifelong commitment to dreaming big has pushed his off-court endeavors to new heights — and how leaders in digital, marketing, and growth can meet this pivotal moment with similar courage to unlock boundless innovation.
To learn more about the keynote session, or to register, visit: <a href="https://www.optimizely.com/opticon/#registration" target="_blank">Opticon 2022</a>.
<h2>Acquia Announces New Digital Asset Management (DAM) Integration with Drupal</h2>
<img style="max-width:1000px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/11/acquia_composable.jpg" alt="Acquia logo against a composite background of Tetris-like pieces fitting together, reinforcing the concept of composable DXP" />
<a href="https://www.acquia.com/" target="_blank">Acquia</a>, a leading DXP platform, has <a href="https://www.acquia.com/newsroom/press-releases/acquia-announces-new-digital-asset-management-dam-integration-drupal" target="_blank">announced</a> a new Drupal integration with the company's digital asset management (DAM) solution, <a href="https://www.acquia.com/products/marketing-cloud/dam" target="_blank">Acquia DAM</a> (previously Widen DAM). The solution is aimed at speeding time-to-market for content. 
Using the open source integration, content authors can now leverage Acquia DAM embed codes and manage versioning through the Media Library in Drupal – which has been extended to help users easily find their digital assets via search, metadata, and categories. Acquia DAM makes it simpler to organize and control assets, as well as achieve brand consistency through a centralized, cloud-based library. 
"Content is at the heart of any standout digital experience," said Dries Buytaert, Co-Founder and CTO of Acquia. "With a variety of asset types stored across disparate systems, many content authors struggle to maintain brand consistency as they build digital properties and create campaigns. The new Acquia DAM integration with Drupal makes it easier and faster to leverage brand-approved content, so content authors can focus on launching content rather than hunting down digital assets."
<h2>DigitalOcean to Acquire Cloudways</h2>
<img style="max-width:1000px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/08/digitalocean-cloudways-acquisition.jpg" alt="DititalOcean Cloudways logos" />
DigitalOcean is riding a wave of success, and this latest move is a testament to its growth. 
Billing itself as the cloud for developers, startups, and SMBs, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/headless-cms-strapi-now-available-on-the-digitalocean-marketplace/">DigitalOcean</a> has carved a strong and loyal niche in the market – particularly as large public cloud providers have continued to dominate the space. Now, with an agreement to acquire <a href="https://www.cloudways.com/en/" target="_blank">Cloudways</a>, a leading managed cloud hosting and software as a service (SaaS) provider for SMBs, its ocean is about to expand. 
According to the company, DigitalOcean's acquisition promises to simplify workflows for small to medium-sized businesses that are looking for easier ways to create and scale their digital businesses. Cloudways will provide simple onboarding and day-to-day management that is purpose-built for certain SMBs looking to outsource their on-ramp to the internet, helping them offload the complexities of cloud infrastructure so they can spend more time running and scaling their businesses. 
The acquisition of Cloudways expands DigitalOcean’s serviceable market within global SMBs and increases options for digital agencies, eCommerce sites, bloggers, freelance developers, and builders hosting on WordPress, PHP and Magento. WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) – and according to <a href="https://twitter.com/w3techs?lang=en" target="_blank">W3Techs</a>, it powers 43% of all websites on the internet.
Entrepreneurs and SMBs already choose Cloudways to optimize the performance, value, support, reliability and flexibility of their infrastructure and application management. As a result, they can save time and money while they grow their businesses. Cloudways provides a differentiated offering with an open and flexible platform, an incredible price-to-performance ratio, and superior customer experience.
DigitalOcean and Cloudways have been close partners since 2014. Cloudways currently relies on DigitalOcean infrastructure to power approximately 50% of its customers. Cloudways serves an international and growing customer base with an industry-leading NPS score of 71. Together, DigitalOcean and Cloudways will serve over 124,000 customers paying over $50 per month, representing approximately 84% of the pro forma company’s total revenue.
“SMBs represent more than 50% of global gross domestic product (GDP) and spend $70 billion on cloud infrastructure today. With this acquisition, we are making it easier to launch, build and scale a business on DigitalOcean,” said Yancey Spruill, CEO at DigitalOcean. “Cloudways and DigitalOcean share values around simplicity, community, openness and support that are vital attributes to how we differentiate in the marketplace. Together, we will be focused on providing a simple, easy, intuitive, and trusted platform to better serve SMBs so they can build their businesses and pursue their dreams of entrepreneurship.”
In addition to expanding DigitalOcean’s technology and tooling, the acquisition of Cloudways will also increase DigitalOcean’s global employee base by 30% — adding expertise in key growth areas that will continue to drive productivity and performance across the platform.

CMS Monthly Recap: WordPress Homepage Gets a New Design, Optimizely Announces Opticon 2022, Acquia Introduces DAM Integration, and More

paris-tuzun

Above image of a car driving through an autumn forest, with foliage in a wide spectrum of colors.

It's July, and the world feels like it's melting. Literally. 
As entire continents experience <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/06/21/heat-wave-records-europe-north-america-summer" target="_blank">record-breaking summer temperatures</a> in the Northern Hemisphere, we're doing what we can to stay cool – and bring you cooler stories from across the CMS and DXP landscape.
This month was hot for a lot of reasons, including <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/wix-to-host-first-ever-developers-conference-wix-devcon-2022/">Wix's DevCon 2022</a> – the company's first-ever developer's conference – and of course, the annual epic that is <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/reflections-on-wordcamp-europe-2022/">WordPress WordCamp Europe</a>. Cool stuff indeed.
On the ever-present investment side of the ledger, we covered <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/kontent-ai-raises-40-million-to-bring-the-power-of-ai-to-content-management/">Kentico's spinoff of Kontent.ai</a> – and the new company's stellar raise of $40 million. Kontent plans to use the funds to further juice its platform with AI innovation, which has been a key focus area since its inception. We also covered <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/storyblok-launches-1-5m-partner-fund-to-help-agencies-shape-the-future-of-digital-storytelling/">Storyblok's launch</a> of a $1.5 million partner fund to help agencies shape the future of digital storytelling and GraphCMS' announcement that it is <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/graphcms-rebrands-to-hygraph-launches-new-federated-content-platform/">rebranding to Hygraph</a> and what this means for its future growth. 
Just under the wire for July, Magnolia sent a thunderous boom across the CMS market with news that <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/genui-acquires-majority-stake-in-magnolia-and-invests-in-future-growth/">GENUI is acquiring a majority stake</a> in its company, with plans to inject significant growth capital. While details were thin, GENUI has forged quite a reputation over the years as a growth engine for technologies, so we'll be watching as things unfold. 
There are a few other stories from July that you might have missed – so turn down the air conditioning and settle in more for more cool stuff. 
<h2>dotCMS Launches Enterprise Cloud Hosting for Single Page Applications</h2>
<img style="max-width:1000px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/07/dotcms-interface.webp" alt="dotCMS interface" />
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/?s=dotcms" target="_blank">dotCMS</a>, an enterprise <a href="https://www.dotcms.com/blog/post/migrating-headless-cms-hybrid-headless-cms" target="_blank">hybrid-headless CMS</a>, has <a href="https://www.dotcms.com/company/news/dotcms-launches-enterprise-cloud-hosting-for-single-page-applications" target="_blank">announced</a> that <a href="https://www.dotcms.com/videos/enterprise-spa-hosting" target="_blank">the enterprise cloud SPA hosting</a> feature will be available as part of its standard <a href="https://www.dotcms.com/product/dotcms-cloud" target="_blank">dotCMS Cloud</a> offering.
For businesses running multi-channel content-driven sites, one challenge when spinning up a new single-page application (SPA) is where to host it. By leveraging dotCMS' Enterprise SPA hosting, based on AWS Amplify and backed by the global <a href="https://www.dotcms.com/company/news/dotcms-announces-dotcdn" target="_blank">dotCDN</a>, enterprises can speed up development and content delivery for global marketing campaigns without being forced to contract with a third-party vendor.
dotCMS' cloud offering includes features such as:
<ul>
<li>24/7 critical care</li>
<li>Annual core dotCMS upgrades</li>
<li>Up to 99.98% uptime</li>
<li>No API-rate limiting or throttling</li>
<li>Automated security fixes</li>
<li>Native Web Application Firewall (WAF)</li>
<li>Native dotCDN Content Delivery Network to mitigate DDoS attacks</li>
<li>Secure access with Oauth or SAML-based authentication and with IP Whitelisting</li>
</ul>
"We are providing organizations with a way to quickly deliver their content applications to customers around the world," said CTO of dotCMS, Will Ezell. "This latest offering exemplifies our commitment to security and scalability."
With enterprise SPA hosting, development teams can focus on innovation and building engaging applications to support the business outcomes instead of managing the underlying infrastructure. Enterprises can leverage the new service to save hundreds of thousands of dollars annually that they would otherwise spend on administrative and hosting costs.
<h2>Acquia Partners with Workato to Power Enterprise Connectivity to Acquia CDP, Adds Data Subject Deletion Request Features</h2>
<a href="https://www.acquia.com/" target="_blank">Acquia</a>, a leading digital experience company, has made several important updates to its CDP this month. 
First, they <a href="https://www.acquia.com/newsroom/press-releases/acquia-partners-workato-power-enterprise-connectivity-acquia-cdp" target="_blank">announced</a> a partnership with the integration and workflow automation platform <a href="https://www.workato.com/" target="_blank">Workato</a> to power enterprise connectivity to Acquia Customer Data Platform (CDP). They also added new data subject deletion request features that will help their customers comply with the GDPR regulations and privacy laws. Using a new self-service interface, organizations can rapidly process "Right to Erasure" (otherwise known as "Right to be Forgotten") requests associated with regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, and more from their customers. 
Partnership with Workato 
Acquia's partnership with Workato will allow organizations to integrate Acquia CDP with hundreds of external cloud services via secure, enterprise-grade APIs through out-of-box connectors. As the company noted: "The connectivity powered by Workato will help customers achieve even faster time-to-value by reducing the time it takes to get their data from their preferred cloud services into and out of Acquia CDP."
Workato is a leading enterprise automation platform that enables businesses, and IT teams to integrate their apps and automate their business workflows. It has been <a href="https://discover.workato.com/gartner-ipaas-mq/p/1" target="_blank">selected as a Leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service</a> for 4th year in a row.
"We're pleased to partner with Workato to add hundreds of integrations between Acquia CDP and marketing, analytics, and commerce applications," said Mark Picone, SVP and General Manager, Marketing Cloud, at Acquia. "The connectivity powered by Workato will help customers achieve even faster time-to-value by reducing the time it takes to get their data from their preferred cloud services into and out of Acquia CDP."
As a part of the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-launches-new-open-digital-experience-platform/" target="_blank">Acquia Marketing Cloud platform</a>, Acquia CDP enables marketers to aggregate and activate data from technologies of their choice into a unified, 360-degree customer profile. From there, marketers can use Acquia CDP to orchestrate personalized, AI-powered campaigns across the entire omnichannel customer journey.
"We're seeing a continued trend around the growing needs for SaaS connectivity, and our partnership with Acquia will allow their communities of partners and customers to keep up with the accelerated demand," said Bhaskar Roy, CMO at Workato. "Not only will they be able to build and leverage robust connectors to their preferred applications, but they will also be able to connect to these applications and automate workflows across them. We're excited to be partnering with Acquia, who has become a leading force in the future of digital experiences by embracing the power of automation."
David Wallace, Research Director, Customer Intelligence and Analytics at IDC, commented: "Digital-first brands must focus on quality, speed-to-value, and agility to deliver the personalized experiences expected by their customers. Customer data platforms help brands achieve their goals not only with productized integrations and APIs but also enterprise-grade, pre-built connectors across an array of digital channels for the flexibility for multiple use cases. Acquia, through its partnership with Workato and inherent low-code tooling enables this increased flexibility."
New Regulatory Compliance Features
Soon after the partnership with Workato, Acquia also <a href="https://www.acquia.com/newsroom/press-releases/acquia-adds-data-subject-deletion-request-features-acquia-cdp" target="_blank">announced</a> they added new regulatory compliance features that help organizations using <a href="https://www.acquia.com/products/marketing-cloud/customer-data-platform" target="_blank">Acquia Customer Data Platform (CDP)</a> to comply with data subject requests and privacy laws in general. 
"This feature for legal and compliance workflows is the latest in a series of self-service updates we're making to Acquia CDP," said Janessa Worrell, Director of Product Management at Acquia. "Our goal is to make it simple for organizations using Acquia CDP to process deletion requests from their own customers, ensuring that these requests are handled quickly. Customers can expect more self-service features in the coming months, removing friction and making common Acquia CDP workflows simpler to execute."
Other recent self-service updates include secure credentials management for Acquia CDP out-of-the-box connectors. Organizations can now generate and manage their own credentials for pre-built connectors to external services such as Facebook or Google.
<h2>WordCamp US 2022 Tickets Sold Out, All Sessions to be Livestreamed</h2>
Two months after the most popular WordPress event, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/reflections-on-wordcamp-europe-2022/" target="_blank">WordCamp Europe</a>, has ended, WordCamp US will be hosting its two-day event in San Diego, California, from September 9 through September 11. Like WordCamp Europe, this will be the first in-person event since 2019. 
With the COVID-19 still looming and to allow for adequate social distancing, this year's WordCamp US event is designed as a smaller event - limited to 650 attendees - compared to the previous years. Since it is the first in-person event in two years, the demand was extremely high, and the <a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2022/tickets/" target="_blank">tickets</a> are already sold out but don't worry. You can watch all the WCUS 2022 sessions <a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2022/livestream/" target="_blank">online </a>without having to purchase any tickets.
WCUS has also begun<a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2022/speakers/" target="_blank"> announcing its speakers</a>. This year they are making an increased effort to give more opportunities to underrepresented speakers. 
The opening remarks will begin at 9:00 am on Friday and Saturday, and the sessions will run from 9:15 am to 5:30 pm. The last day of the event will be the "Contributor Day" on Sunday.
You can follow the updates via the <a href="https://paper.dropbox.com/?q=%23WCUS" target="_blank">#WCUS</a> hashtag on Twitter.
<h2>Sitecore Experience Manager Cloud (XM Cloud) Now Available</h2>
<img style="max-width:1000px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/07/xmcloud-ui.jpg" alt="SiteCore XM Cloud user interface " />
<a href="https://www.sitecore.com/" target="_blank">Sitecore</a>, a global leader in end-to-end digital experience software, <a href="https://www.sitecore.com/company/news-events/press-releases/2022/07/sitecore-experience-manager-cloud-now-available" target="_blank">announced</a> that it has released its <a href="https://www.sitecore.com/products/xm-cloud" target="_blank">Sitecore Experience Manager (XM) Cloud</a>. This latest product release will provide brands with unrivaled speed to market in implementing customer experiences, simplifying design and deployment, eliminating upgrades, and dramatically decreasing ownership costs. With XM Cloud, marketers can instantly create, manage and deliver engaging omnichannel experiences with an industry-leading enterprise-ready CMS.
According to a <a href="https://www.sitecore.com/company/news-events/press-releases/2022/05/us-brand-authenticity-report" target="_blank">recent survey by Sitecore</a>, online interactions play an outsized role in driving engagement between brands and customers. The digital experience, while valued by consumers, creates a scalability issue for marketers to meet demand. <a href="https://www.sitecore.com/products/xm-cloud" target="_blank">Sitecore XM Cloud</a> provides a comprehensive SaaS CMS for the Enterprise solution for brands by overcoming global scaling problems, including variable traffic, supporting multi-brand architectures, and site security.
For business users, <a href="https://www.sitecore.com/products/xm-cloud" target="_blank">XM Cloud</a> offers the ability to build pixel-perfect digital experiences via a WYSIWYG authoring experience that can access content anywhere, with embedded testing, personalization, and integrated visitor analytics. For developers, <a href="https://www.sitecore.com/products/xm-cloud" target="_blank">XM Cloud</a> can be used with headless development techniques, working with modern frontend frameworks and supporting all deployment scenarios.
"Consumer behavior has changed rapidly over the past two years. Audiences have become very digitally savvy and have an expectation from brands to deliver highly personalized customer experiences," said Dave O'Flanagan, chief product officer, Sitecore. "This puts marketers in the unenviable position of trying to meet this expectation, but with tools and solutions that don't deliver, and in some cases hamstring, the needed agility to meet demand. Sitecore XM Cloud provides marketers with a truly end-to-end, SaaS-based solution that not only helps brands meet consumer expectations but also delivers a best-of-class omnichannel customer experience."
Through <a href="https://www.sitecore.com/products/xm-cloud" target="_blank">Sitecore XM Cloud</a>, the company's entire <a href="https://www.sitecore.com/products/sitecore-experience-platform" target="_blank">Digital Experience Platform</a> can now be delivered through a modern cloud architecture, providing brands and marketers with:
<ul>
<li>Continued innovation – new features and capabilities will be automatically delivered and integrated</li>
<li>Elastic scaling – "set-and-forget" traffic volume demands</li>
<li>Composability – all of Sitecore's platform solutions can now be purchased independently and will fit in a best-of-breed marketing technology stack</li>
<li>On-the-Fly Engagement – rapidly create experiences to meet constantly evolving market needs</li>
<li>Multi-channel content management - create content once and reuse across any channel and experience</li>
<li>Simplicity for marketers – business-focused tools and intuitive content authoring workflows</li>
<li>Agility for developers – customized builds with modern frameworks</li>
</ul>

CMS Monthly Recap: dotCMS Launches Enterprise Cloud Hosting, Acquia Partners with Workato, Sitecore Releases Experience Manager Cloud, and More

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Kentico - Gartner

Analysts and customers recognize Kentico DXP in Gartner Reports.

Kentico has been recognized by Gartner.

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Reflections on WordCamp Europe 2022

April 2022 is already behind us. And when it rains... it pours. 
As bad news befalls the globe – from a persistent conflict in Ukraine to stumbling stock markets – CMS and DXP vendors continue to slug it out. How will tech fare in the coming months with the specter of recession on the horizon? Tough to say, but we'll be watching.  
By most measures, last month was relatively quiet. We saw announcements from <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/hyland-releases-new-content-services-and-intelligent-automation-product-enhancements/">Hyland</a>, updates from <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-announces-updates-to-product-suite-enhances-composable-features-and-innovation-from-acquisitions/">Sitecore</a> around its composable features, and a new partnership between <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/woocommerce-and-pinterest-announce-partnership-offer-new-integration-for-connecting-with-shoppers/">WooCommerce and Pinterest</a>. We followed a few additional stories in April and wrapped them up (as we always do). 
Enjoy the scoop. And you might want to keep an umbrella handy. You never know if the forecast might change. 
<h2>WordPress.com changes pricing and rattles users </h2>
Speaking of rain, WordPress.com has been gathering a few storm clouds by adding some significant <a href="https://wordpress.com/pricing/">price changes to its plans</a>. To add salt to the wound, the changes were apparently <a href="https://rootprivileges.net/2022/04/03/what-are-you-doing-wordpress-com/">unannounced,</a> and many people have been expressing their disappointment. The biggest sly: replacing all its paid options with a single Pro plan. The platform also slashed the storage on its free tier from 3GB to 500MB. Ouch.
Dave Martin, the CEO of WordPress.com, took to <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30896807">Hacker News</a> to address the concerns. As he noted: "You're right to call us out. I did a poor job of sharing context around why we are making change, so I can see how they could come as a shock. I'm sorry! That's on me."
Martin went on to say that more changes were in the works and that this was the first of several phases. He also clarified that no legacy sites or blogs have been affected by these new price changes – so if your site is on an older plan, there should have been no changes to your billing. He mentioned that many of the existing plans were haphazardly added to WordPress.com with no real strategy, making it hard for customers to see at-a-glance why they should choose one plan over another.
That said, it's a classic lesson in the need for transparency. 
<h2>WordPress releases version 6.0, Gutenberg 13.0</h2>
When <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/updates-on-wordcamp-2021-wordpress-5-8-beta-details-and-gutenberg-enhancements/" target="_blank">WordPress 5.8</a> was released in July 2021, it introduced some major features that would pave the way to <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/handbook/focuses/full-site-editing/" target="_blank">Full Site Editing (FSE)</a>. <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-9/" target="_blank">WordPress 5.9 Josephine</a> took that to the next level, putting users in control of the whole experience of the FSE’s visual editing capabilities. 
Now, WordPress 6.0 is almost here, making it the second<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/release-cycle/releasing-major-versions/" target="_blank"> major release</a> of 2022. While the 6.0 beta version arrived in mid-April, it is expected to be<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/6-0/" target="_blank"> released on May 24, 2022</a>.
While we’re waiting for the release of WordPress 6.0, WordPress released another update to Gutenberg on April 14.
<img style="max-width:900px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/05/featured-image-in-cover.png" alt="Featured Image in Cover" />
The major updates include text selection across blocks, cover blocks with feature images, new responsive layouts for the Groups, Rows, and Stacks, and customizable borders to make your blocks stand out. 
There are also many other<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/04/14/whats-new-in-gutenberg-13-0-14-april/" target="_blank"> notable improvements</a> that are worth checking out. 
<h2>WP Engine accelerates headless WordPress innovation with launch of new plans and Atlas Blueprints</h2>
<img style="max-width:900px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/05/wp-engine-atlas-blueprint.webp" alt="WP-Engine-Atlas-blueprint" />
WordPress has always been a traditional monolithic CMS. While it still maintains its crown as the most popular CMS in the world, it's been playing catch up in the move to headless.
But that's starting to change as <a href="https://wpengine.com/" target="_blank">WP Engine</a>, the world’s most trusted WordPress technology company, as they announced the launch of Atlas – its award-winning headless WordPress solution. It's now available to businesses of all sizes with four new headless WordPress plans, ranging from $49 to $499, allowing developers to learn, build and grow their sites on Atlas. 
WP Engine also announced the launch of Atlas Blueprints, which are free, professionally-designed templates allowing anyone to get started fast with headless WordPress. Developers can also try out Atlas by signing up for a free Atlas Sandbox account, which allows developers to learn more about developing with headless WordPress and create prototype projects.
<h2>Postman API platform surpasses 20 million users, driven by vision for API-First world</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/05/20-million-postman-users.jpg" alt="20-million-postman-users" />
<a href="https://www.postman.com/" target="_blank">Postman</a>, the world's leading API platform, <a href="https://blog.postman.com/celebrating-20-million-postman-users/">announced</a> that more than 20 million developers and builders have adopted its platform to build and use APIs, strengthening the company's reputation for simplifying the API lifecycle and streamlining collaboration. Postman's public API hub is the world's largest, with workspaces from Microsoft, Stripe, Meta, Notion, Intel, Oracle, and more.
In <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/postman-releases-2021-state-of-the-api-report-shows-global-trend-towards-api-first-digital-era/">Postman's 2021 State of the API Report</a>, 67% of survey respondents ranked themselves a five or higher in terms of embracing an API-first philosophy – a five-point increase from 2020. Furthermore, the "API-first leaders" who ranked themselves highest produced APIs more quickly, deployed more frequently, had fewer failures, and recovered more swiftly when failures occurred.
<h2>Hyland expands infrastructure to deploy new OnBase and Brainware customers on AWS</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/09/e0030_thumb_big_media.png" alt="Hyland OnBase" />
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/hyland-releases-new-content-services-and-intelligent-automation-product-enhancements/">Hyland</a>, recognized as a leading content services provider with more than 1,700 cloud customers, has expanded its work with <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/">Amazon Web Services (AWS)</a> to support its customer base and their increased cloud deployment and migration needs. 
Working with AWS, Hyland will expand its <a href="https://www.hyland.com/en/innovation/hyland-cloud" target="_blank">Hyland Cloud</a> infrastructure to deploy new <a href="https://www.hyland.com/en/onbase" target="_blank">OnBase</a> and <a href="https://www.hyland.com/en/platform/product-suite/brainware" target="_blank">Brainware</a> cloud customers and cloud migration environments in North America on the appropriate AWS Region – fully supported and managed by Hyland's technical experts.
The strengthened relationship with AWS delivers an expansive infrastructure footprint for the Hyland Cloud, allowing Hyland to meet customer requirements with agility and scale while providing a more flexible architecture that supports customers' evolving information technology (IT) and business challenges. Backed by innovative technologies, security-driven policies, and dedicated support from knowledgeable technology experts, customers deploying Hyland's software-as-a-service (SaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offerings on AWS benefit from its continued focus on cloud innovation and support for next-generation cloud solutions.
"Our work with AWS gives customers and prospects greater confidence and agility when deploying their cloud content services solutions, which are optimized for their unique needs and requirements," said Will Milewski, Senior Vice President, Cloud Infrastructure and Operations at Hyland. "With organizations continuing to evolve their business strategies to support remote work, cloud-based solutions are becoming the default and our relationship with AWS will ensure we're exceeding our customers' requirements from their content services platform."
Gartner has recognized Hyland as a content services industry leader for 12 consecutive years, and the winner of our own <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/introducing-the-winners-of-the-2021-cms-critics-choice-awards/" target="_blank">Critic's Choice Awards</a> for ECM in 2021. 
<h2>Concrete CMS 9.1.0RC1 is now available</h2>
Solid as a rock.
That was the news from the <a href="https://www.concretecms.com/" target="_blank">Concrete CMS</a> team as the company announced the availability of its first release candidate for Concrete CMS 9.1.0 – featuring a multitude of improvements, new features, and bug fixes, including:
<ul>
<li>Enhanced compatibility with PHP 8 and PHP 8.1.</li>
<li>Improved appearance and functionality when editing block, area, layout, and container styles inline in the page.</li>
<li>Express improvements like the ability to mark attributes as unique, handle re-use across objects, and much more.</li>
<li>Much improved version comparison features that can compare the HTML of two-page versions and highlight the differences.</li>
<li>Improvements to Dashboard listing screens and the file details screen.</li>
</ul>
Additionally, there are many behavioral and performance improvements included. The boulder-sized list is far too large for this blog post. <a href="https://documentation.concretecms.org/developers/introduction/version-history/910-release-notes" target="_blank">Click here</a> to read more of the details.
Concrete CMS was also recognized as a 2022 Leader in Content Management Systems by <a href="https://sourceforge.net/">SourceForge</a>.

CMS Monthly Recap: WP Engine Launches Headless Plans, Postman API Platform Surpasses 20 Million Users, and More

Featured image of April monthly recap of an umbrella with raindrops

When compared to mammoth rivals like Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok, <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/" target="_blank">Pinterest</a> can feel... well, less interesting. 
OK, so maybe it's not as visible as its social brethren, and the stats codify this. According to a recent <a href="https://blog.hootsuite.com/pinterest-statistics-for-business/" target="_blank">article</a>, the image-sharing app – popular for posting recipes, home decor, and more – ranks fourteenth on a list of the world's most used social media platforms. 
Fourteenth. That seems like quite a few rungs down the social ladder. But shockingly, Pinterest's <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/463353/pinterest-global-mau/#:~:text=How%20many%20users%20does%20Pinterest,million%20international%20monthly%20active%20users." target="_blank">431 million active global users</a> still puts it ahead of Twitter.
Take that, Elon Musk.
Along with posting "pins" of paint chips and curtain fabrics, shopping is one of the top activities for Pinterest users, and the platform's expansive community has emerged as a channel for e-Commerce. Given the number of users browsing boards and perusing products and services, it makes sense that sellers might be interested in connecting their storefronts to Pinterest to peddle their wares. 
Now, <a href="https://business.pinterest.com/en/blog/introducing-pinterest-for-woocommerce/" target="_blank">WooCommerce</a> is giving its merchants a way to turn their product catalogs into shoppable "pins" on Pinterest, making it easier to build audiences and drive more sales. Whatever a seller might be offering – from fashion to apparel to appliances – this new feature will allow each product listing to become a shoppable pin on the platform, just like this:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/04/pinterest-product-tags-975x1024.webp" alt="Pinterest product tags" />
The companies recently <a href="https://business.pinterest.com/en/blog/introducing-pinterest-for-woocommerce/" target="_blank">announced</a> a strategic partnership that's designed to simplify the connection via a new integration, which will be available to WooCommerce merchants in the <a href="https://woocommerce.com/products/pinterest-for-woocommerce/" target="_blank">Products section</a> of the company's website. 
"By partnering together, we provide the best integrated Pinterest shopping experience possible for WooCommerce merchants to be on the cutting edge of social commerce," said Aleksandra Bettin, VP of Business Development at WooCommerce. "WooCommerce is highly invested in our merchants' success. Merchants need the right options to reach the right audiences – this integration with Pinterest helps them do that."
<h2>Using Pinterest to drive more traffic to WooCommerce stores</h2>
The category of <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-commerce.asp#:~:text=What%20Is%20Social%20Commerce%3F,retweets%2C%20likes%2C%20and%20shares." target="_blank">social commerce</a> is booming, and brands are looking for new ways to reach their audiences. While all social media platforms can help amplify traffic (both paid and organic), Pinterest has introduced some innovative features to help augment SEO. This includes a new visual search tool that makes finding customers on the platform even easier. Likewise, using pins, boards, and collections on Pinterest can drive organic traffic to a WooCommerce site. This combination gives merchants more power when it comes to expanding their reach. 
According to Pinterest's statistics, a whopping <a href="https://business.pinterest.com/audience/" target="_blank">97% of the top searches on Pinterest are unbranded</a>. That means Pinterest shoppers haven't made up their minds about specific products or brands – and they're open to learning and exploring. This is an opportunity that both WooCommerce and Pinterest have keyed in on, and are now simplifying the connection points to convert a shopper's interest into a real brand purchase. 
<h2>How to use the WooCommerce Pinterest extension </h2>
Adding the Pinterest integration to a WooCommerce store is very simple. It starts by installing the <a href="https://woocommerce.com/products/pinterest-for-woocommerce/" target="_blank">Pinterest for WooCommerce extension</a>, which will upload an entire WooCommerce product catalog to Pinterest. From there, shoppable pins will appear in people's feeds as they search and browse. The extension also logs when customers interact with products on Pinterest so users can track their best-selling or most saved items. 
While some WooCommerce merchants might have already manually uploaded their catalogs to Pinterest, the company recommends switching to the new extension instead. It's the easiest and most efficient way to keep your products current on Pinterest since it automatically updates details like pricing and product availability. 
The Pinterest for WooCommerce integration is currently available in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Japan will gain access later this year. 
<h2>About WooCommerce</h2>
<a href="https://woocommerce.com/" target="_blank">WooCommerce</a> is the leading open-source e-commerce platform, powering 28% of the top million online stores (BuiltWith). Built on <a href="https://wordpress.com/" target="_blank">WordPress</a>, it empowers anyone, anywhere, to sell anything with truly unlimited extensibility, flexibility, and control over how they build and evolve their business. Founded in 2011 and acquired by Automattic in 2015, WooCommerce is a fully distributed company with employees based around the world.
<h2>About Pinterest</h2>
People around the world come to Pinterest for inspiration. It's a visual inspiration platform where people find inspiring creators, shop new products, and seek out ideas to take offline. People have saved more than 330 billion Pins across a range of interests, from creating a home office, cooking a new recipe to finding your next vacation spot. Headquartered in San Francisco, Pinterest launched in 2010 and has more than 400 million monthly active users. Available on iOS and Android and at pinterest.com.

WooCommerce and Pinterest Announce Partnership, Offer New Integration for Connecting with Shoppers

Woocommerce and Pinterest logos together on a dark background

CMS Monthly Recap: Google Sunsets Universal Analytics, WordPress Releases a New Performance Plugin, and More

Featured image of CMS Critic Monthly Recap text against a dark background with a close-up of a basketball

While some of us are shoveling content across digital channels, others are digging out from record snowfall. 
It's fair to say that "Old Man Winter" has finally arrived, and he's brought a distinct chill to more than the weather. The Nasdaq Composite just <a href="https://variety.com/2022/biz/news/nasdaq-january-drop-covid19-pandemic-1235167945/" target="_blank">experienced its worst start</a> to a January since 2008, with the deepest correction felt across the technology sector. It's hard to know if this is a momentary blip or a trend, but the recent volatility is making things a little less predictable. 
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, tech companies have realized unprecedented growth. If you're not familiar with the <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/five-fifty-the-quickening" target="_blank">McKinsey study</a> called "The Quickening," it's a stunning piece that codifies the rapid acceleration of e-Commerce from late 2019 into 2020 – when the world experienced 10 years of digital transformation in just 90 days. In the report, they refer to the effect as feeling like "whiplash," and that sounds right. But is the whipping and lashing over?
Despite a light dusting of news, 2022 is already shaping up to be "The Year of the MACH," as evidenced by the continued growth in this burgeoning quadrant of the digital ecosystem. While much of the noise is being amplified by the <a href="https://machalliance.org/" target="_blank">MACH Alliance</a>, there's no question that many organizations are expanding their investment in composable and modular solutions – and looking to power their content strategies with headless CMS and commerce platforms. 
Last month, we covered news from the MACH Alliance as they <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/aws-joins-mach-alliance-as-enabler-member-reflects-growth-of-cloud-native-solutions/">welcomed AWS</a> as an "Enabler Member" in the ecosystem, reflecting the growth of Cloud-native solutions (hint: we have more MACH to cover in today's recap). We also covered news from Optimizely, as they <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/optimizely-integrates-b2b-commerce-cloud-and-content-cloud-combines-headless-commerce-with-cms/">announced</a> an integrated version of its B2B Commerce Cloud and Content Cloud products – as well as a recent <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/new-forrester-tei-study-siteimprove-enterprise-platform-delivers-275-roi/">Forrester TEI study</a> showing some astounding ROI performance from <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/siteimprove-seo-provides-all-in-one-capabilities-for-enhancing-search-performance/">Siteimprove</a>.
VOTING IS OPEN! Cast your ballot for the 2021 CMS Critic People's Choice Awards, which are open through February 20th! We received a ton of nominations across all our categories, and we're thrilled to share the top three for your consideration. Go on... tell us which platforms deserve the crown! <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/vote-for-the-cms-critic-2021-peoples-choice-awards/">Click here to vote now.</a>
Ready to hit the slopes for some news? Grab your skis and keep scrolling downhill...
 
<h2>MACH Alliance announces MongoDB and Netlify as first members of new "Enabler" category</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/02/image-6-e1643908103417.png" />
Before the well-hyped news about AWS joining the <a href="http://www.machalliance.org/" target="_blank">MACH Alliance</a> – the group of independent tech companies dedicated to advocating for open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems – the organization <a href="https://machalliance.org/newsroom/mach-alliance-announces-mongodb-and-netlify-as-first-members-of-new-enabler-category" target="_blank">announced</a> its new "Enabler" membership category, along with its inaugural members: MongoDB and Netlify. The news was released just as the MACH Alliance's global <a href="https://machalliance.org/members" target="_blank">membership reached almost 50</a>.
The MACH Alliance's Enabler category is reserved for organizations that MACH platforms utilize to deliver their service or technology. Because they "enable" a MACH provider instead of offering a direct MACH solution, they aren't suited for an Alliance membership in the Vendor or System Integrator categories – but can often be key components in how a solution is delivered. 
A bit more about these two Enabler members:
<a href="http://mongodb.com/" target="_blank">MongoDB</a> is a leading database platform designed to unleash the power of software and data for developers and the applications they build. The MongoDB database platform has been downloaded over 210 million times and is running in systems around the globe. 
MongoDB shares a common belief with the MACH Alliance: that modern software's interoperability and open architecture will propel current and future digital experiences – the kind that requires unprecedented personalized capabilities that are delivered at scale and weave a mesh of complementary microservices drawing data from multiple sources. All of this requires a level of flexibility that both MongoDB and the MACH Alliance share. 
<a href="https://www.netlify.com/" target="_blank">Netlify</a> is a web development platform that was an early advocate of separating frontend design from backend business processes. By unifying the elements of the modern decoupled web, Netlify enables a 10-time faster path to more secure and scalable websites and apps. The company announced in November a $105 million Series D to accelerate the growth of its developer platform and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-jamstack-static-site-generators-for-2021/">Jamstack</a> ecosystem. 
Originally started by Netlify, the Jamstack "movement" has changed the trajectory of the web. Jamstack technologies provide nearly limitless choices to developers for designing rich customer experiences in web applications. Netlify unites different services to deliver MACH solutions, making it an ideal fit as an Enabler – delivering the workflow, expertise, and choice of tools for building solutions that reflect the MACH principles. 
"Our first two Enabler members are of the highest magnitude," said Sonja Keerl, president of the MACH Alliance. "The ecosystem of the MACH category and the industry direction that it represents is much bigger and wider than just the current 50 certified members. By having Enablers represented within the Alliance ecosystem, we now better cover the spectrum of businesses that fit within our membership guidelines and play a critical part in bringing MACH architecture to life. We're incredibly pleased to have MongoDB and Netlify on board as the first of many Enabler members."
The MACH Alliance has also <a href="https://machalliance.org/newsroom/mach-alliance-announces-eight-newly-certified-companies-as-global-membership-nears-50" target="_blank">announced</a> eight newly certified members in November. 
<h2></h2>
<h2>Solodev launches new platform for building NFT Marketplaces to mint and sell digital assets in the metaverse</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/01/solodev-nft-marketplace-featured-image.jpg" />
<a href="https://www.solodev.com/" target="_blank">Solodev</a> – now repositioning itself as Solodev Cloud Services – <a href="https://www.solodev.com/news/solodev-launches-new-platform-for-building-nft-marketplaces-to-mint-and-sell-digital-assets-in-the-metaverse.stml" target="_blank">announced the launch of Solodev NFT Marketplace</a>, a platform that allows developers and organizations to build custom ecosystems for minting and selling NFTs on a fast, secure, and highly scalable infrastructure powered by AWS. 
With Solodev's new solution, users can choose to deploy a custom NFT marketplace on the blockchain of their choice, including <a href="https://www.solodev.com/marketplace/ethereum" target="_blank">Ethereum</a> and <a href="https://www.solodev.com/marketplace/cardano" target="_blank">Cardano</a>, with additional options coming soon. Solodev's advanced marketplace as a Service (MaaS) capabilities will enable organizations to stand up their NFT exchange with greater speed and ease, accelerating their journey to the metaverse. 
"At Solodev, we've always been focused on supporting the builders – and NFT marketplaces are what builders want to build," said Shawn Moore, Chief Technology Officer at Solodev Cloud Services. "There's no doubt that Meta, Amazon, Gamestop, and Walmart are leading the way to the metaverse. Now, with our cloud and blockchain services, anyone can launch an NFT marketplace at scale to reach the metaverse faster and compete."
According to their press release, Solodev Cloud Services is currently developing a high-end NFT gallery in partnership with several organizations, focusing on studio and digital art. The new exchange will be built on Cardano with plans to go live in the coming months, with support for several new blockchains coming soon. In addition, Solodev is also launching a crypto incubator that will leverage smart contracts to govern the creation of high-tech startups.
<h2></h2>
<h2>Glassbox and Optimizely partner to accelerate digital transformation for businesses</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/01/press-release-blog-featured-images-16.png" />
<a href="https://www.glassbox.com/" target="_blank">Glassbox</a>, a software as a service (SaaS) company that provides digital experience analytics for web and mobile applications, announced a strategic partnership with <a href="https://www.optimizely.com/" target="_blank">Optimizely</a> – a leading digital experience platform (DXP). The two companies plan to strengthen their joint go-to-market offerings to give customers an unparalleled advantage for transforming the digital customer experience. 
The Glassbox analytics platform provides a single source of truth that captures, visualizes, and analyzes digital journeys. It empowers enterprise organizations to manage and optimize the entire digital lifecycle of their web and mobile customers. Through the Glassbox and Optimizely partnership, the companies will enable customers to unlock their digital potential and drive new levels of insights and innovation. 
"Customer expectations for a seamless digital experience are at an all-time high, so this collaboration will be an ideal fit for all those organizations looking to fulfill this objective more effectively thanks to Optimizely's best-in-class digital experience technology and Glassbox's superior digital experience analytics," said Dror Friedman, VP Channel &amp; Alliances, Glassbox.
One thing Optimizely consistently does well is listen to customers. The company also acquired a number of strategic technologies to help address customer needs in a single platform. This includes <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/optimizely-acquires-customer-data-platform-zaius/" target="_blank">Zaius</a>, a customer data platform, and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/optimizelys-acquisition-of-welcome-signals-expanded-focus-on-marketers/" target="_blank">Welcome</a> – a content marketing (CMP), marketing resource management (MRM), and digital asset management (DAM) platform. 
Optimizely has been challenging the crop of leading enterprise DXPs featured on <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/key-takeaways-from-gartners-2021-magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms/" target="_blank">Gartner's 2021 Magic Quadrant for DXPs</a>, as well as the <a href="https://www.optimizely.com/company/press/optimizely-named-a-leader-in-agile-content-management-systems/" target="_blank">Forrester Wave for Agile Content Management Systems</a>. 
<div>
<h2></h2>
<h2>WordPress releases Gutenberg 12.4 with accessibility improvements, categories reminder, and and A-List of shortcuts</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/01/gb-post-publish-cat-check-2048x1151-1-e1643671781296.jpg" />
If you haven't heard, there's some new stuff on the WordPress block: Gutenberg 12.4 was released right before the long-awaited <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/wordpress-version/version-5-9/" target="_blank">WordPress 5.9</a>, which includes the Full Site Editing (FSE) feature - an upgrade that's been creating quite a bit of <a href="https://toolset.com/2021/08/full-site-editing-future-of-wordpress-and-what-it-means-for-you/" target="_blank">discussion and debate</a> across the WordPress community. 
These new capabilities help reduce the complexities of building websites using dynamic themes and structured components, all with seamless editing. But for developers creating bespoke designs, Gutenberg and FSE are presenting some obstacles.
There are a few other enhancements worth noting:
</div>
<div>
Accessibility improvements
The focus feature now correctly returns to the list view button after closing out of <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/37798" target="_blank">list view</a> – saving a lot of trouble to get back to where you were before opening it. There are also more improvements to the block inserter sidebar, ant the search input now receives focus when it's opened.
Post publish panel categories reminder
Tags and categories make it easier for people to navigate your website, but it can be easy to forget to add them when publishing a post. To solve that problem, the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/37703" target="_blank">suggestion for assigning a category</a> to the post is added, and it will show up if a category is not already assigned.
There are a few more minor improvements, and you peruse the full list of updates on the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/01/19/whats-new-in-gutenberg-12-4-19-january/" target="_blank">WordPress press release page</a>.
</div>

CMS Monthly Recap: MACH Alliance Announces New Enabler Category, Glassbox and Optimizely Partner, Gutenberg Updates and More

Image of CMS Critic Monthly Recap logo against a photo of a man shoveling snow

Forks up! We've got one more slice of news as we leave November in the rearview.
Along with the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S., it was a month full of "stuffing" at the CMS and DXP table. We shared the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/postman-releases-2021-state-of-the-api-report-shows-global-trend-towards-api-first-digital-era/" target="_blank">Postman "State of the API" report</a>, which further cemented the global trend towards an API-first digital era. We also covered <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/kontent-by-kentico-aims-to-take-enterprise-headless-cms-to-a-new-level/" target="_blank">Kontent by Kentico's continued efforts to transform headless CMS</a> for the enterprise through committed innovation.
From a mergers and acquisitions perspective, November was a bit cooler than in previous months. But there was one piece of news to dish about: <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/commercetools-acquires-frontastic-adds-composable-frontend-capabilities-to-headless-commerce/" target="_blank">commercetools devoured Frontastic</a>, adding composable frontend capabilities to its headless commerce offering. We'll be following the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-headless-commerce-platforms/" target="_blank">headless commerce</a> sector throughout 2022 as we expect to see more consolidation, investment, and expansion – particularly as Omicron reinforces the focus on digital transformation.
Finally, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/solodev-cms-for-kubernetes-now-available-with-contract-pricing-in-aws-marketplace-for-containers-anywhere/" target="_blank">Solodev launched its CMS for Kubernetes with contract pricing</a> options in the AWS Marketplace. Announced at <a href="https://reinvent.awsevents.com/" target="_blank">AWS re:Invent</a>, this heralds a new era of container offerings, allowing users to deploy in-cloud or on-premises in almost any environment. Solodev was the only CMS in the mix to offer the new capability.
Enough on the leftovers. Here are a few more tidbits to chew on:
 
<h2>MACH Alliance announces eight newly certified companies as Global Membership nears 50</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/11/mach-alliance-new-members.jpeg" alt="MACH Alliance new members logos" />
The <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3366290-1&amp;h=2364601792&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.machalliance.org%2F&amp;a=MACH+Alliance" target="_blank">MACH Alliance</a>, a group of independent tech companies dedicated to advocating for open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems, announced that it has certified eight new members in its ecosystem: 
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.actindo.com/" target="_blank">Actindo AG</a>, a digital operations platform enabling efficient e-commerce</li>
<li><a href="https://www.appnovation.com/" target="_blank">Appnovation</a>, a global digital consultancy specializing in the design, development, and support of engaging experiences</li>
<li><a href="https://www.builder.io/" target="_blank">Builder.io</a>, a platform to visually create and optimize high-speed app and website experiences</li>
<li><a href="https://www.convictional.com/" target="_blank">Convictional</a>,  a supplier enablement platform for retailers and marketplaces</li>
<li><a href="https://www.fast.co/" target="_blank">Fast</a>, a one-click and headless checkout solution making it easier to buy and sell online.</li>
<li><a href="https://graphcms.com/" target="_blank">GraphCMS</a>, the GraphQL Content Federation System</li>
<li><a href="https://www.objectedge.com/" target="_blank">Object Edge</a>, a consultancy that builds digital experiences for enterprise B2B/B2C/D2C commerce and content</li>
<li><a href="https://www.storyblok.com/" target="_blank">Storyblok</a>, a fast-emerging headless content management system. You can check out <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/interview-headless-cms-storyblok-expands-partner-program-with-u-s-agency-campbell-ewald/" target="_blank">our interview with Barry D'Arcy</a>, VP of Partners at Storyblok.</li>
</ul>
The Alliance estimates that roughly 100,000 tech professionals around the globe are now involved with MACH. This is based on the headcounts of member companies and in-house tech teams of enterprises deploying MACH initiatives. 
The Alliance's growth comes as IT budgets are expected to rise faster in 2022 than they have in over a decade – and spending in support of flexible, composable business and IT initiatives will be prioritized as organizations struggle to be digitally agile and meet consumer demands.
"We've reached a moment of reckoning where digital leaders are realizing legacy technologies pose greater risk than reward, and the pandemic has made it more clear than ever that composable architecture is the way forward for the enterprise," said Sonja Keerl, MACH Alliance president. "Even big tech has started slowly moving in this direction, which is all the more reason why the Alliance upholds its high certification standards since MACH-washing has become increasingly common. The Alliance exists to help organizations weed through that noise and be their guide throughout their MACH journey."
MACH stands for Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, and Headless. The move towards MACH has accelerated in the past few years, leading to the start of the <a href="https://machalliance.org/" target="_blank">MACH Alliance</a> in 2020. Founded by commercetools, Contentstack, EPAM Systems, Valtech, and 15 members at launch, the MACH Alliance is a non-profit cooperation focused on introducing a new, open, and best-of-breed enterprise technology ecosystem. 
Maintaining Exclusive Certification Standards
The MACH Alliance maintains the <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3366290-1&amp;h=2299048448&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fmachalliance.org%2Finsights%2Fmach-certification-a-seal-of-confidence&amp;a=highest+standards" target="_blank">highest standards</a> in order for companies to become certified. The high bar provides enterprises with essentially an insurance policy that guarantees future-proof technology. Choosing a certified MACH vendor helps ensure the following:
<ul>
<li>Connectability: other applications connect easily through API</li>
<li>Scalability: cloud-native SaaS ensures seamless rolling upgrades that don't require human intervention</li>
<li>Swapability:  companies can easily add and replace software and make changes on the fly without disrupting front end UX/UI</li>
<li>Adaptability: the functionality of the software can be used with multiple front ends</li>
<li>Flexibility and Transparency: prevents vendor lock-in, allowing companies to stay in charge of their own technology and be able to respond to any situation</li>
</ul>
Gaining Investor Attention
MACH Alliance vendor members have accumulated more than $2.5 billion in funding, and the valuation of the category just by its vendors is estimated at over $20 billion.
The Alliance has played a key part in fueling this interest, with the group referred to by Forrester analyst Joe Cicman as being "...the bouncers controlling the velvet rope at the entrance of the Coolest Tech in Town Club." In his July write-up, "<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3366290-1&amp;h=3090673364&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.forrester.com%2Fblogs%2Fbuy-an-integrated-platform-not-a-box-of-rocks%2F&amp;a=Buy+An+Integrated+DXP+Platform%2C+Not+Just+A+Box+Of+Rocks" target="_blank">Buy An Integrated DXP Platform, Not Just A Box Of Rocks</a>," Cicman noted how the MACH Alliance enforces the definition of modern technology. He also reinforced the importance of composable set-ups, stating the only practical playbook today is one that is cloud-native.
Learn more at <a href="http://www.machalliance.org/" target="_blank">www.machalliance.org</a>.
<h2>GoDaddy data breach impacts over 1.2 million WordPress accounts</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/11/binary-g2d4825f8f_1280.jpg" alt="Hacker and binary numbers" />
Alas, there are WordPress woes in the land of GoDaddy...
In a statement released by <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1609711/000160971121000122/gddyblogpostnov222021.htm" target="_blank">the Securities and Exchange Commission</a>, GoDaddy's Chief Information Security Officer Demetrius Comes said they discovered unauthorized third-party access to their managed WordPress hosting environment.
<div>Comes also stated that upon identifying this incident, they immediately blocked the unauthorized third party from their system. They have determined that beginning on September 6, 2021, the culprit used the vulnerability to gain access to the following customer information:</div>
<ul>
<li>Up to 1.2 million active and inactive Managed WordPress email addresses and customer numbers: The exposure of email addresses presents a risk of increased phishing attacks.</li>
<li>The original WordPress Admin password set at the time of provisioning: If those credentials were still in use, GoDaddy reset those passwords.</li>
<li>sFTP and database usernames and passwords for active customers</li>
<li>SSL private key for a subset of active customers: GoDaddy is in the process of issuing and installing new certificates for those affected.</li>
</ul>
<div>The investigation is ongoing and GoDaddy is contacting all impacted customers directly with specific details. If you're concerned, contact GoDaddy via their <a href="https://www.godaddy.com/help">help center</a>.</div>
 
<h2>WordPress 5.9 Release Date Gets Delayed to January 25, 2022</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/11/wordpress-59.jpg" alt="WordPress 5.9" />
Keeping up with WordPress version releases is a bit like playing pool with a rope. While Gutenberg gets new enhancements almost every two weeks, bigger releases are much less reliable. 
Case in point: the latest version of WordPress – 5.9 Beta – <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-9/" target="_blank">was scheduled for release</a> on November 16th. Apparently, that news was a bit premature, and the organization <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/11/17/wordpress-5-9-beta-1-delayed/" target="_blank">shifted the release to January 25, 2022</a>, to accommodate 5.9's new features.
Perhaps this is understandable given that WordPress is the most widely used open-source CMS on the planet. Maintaining standards is key, and even the most minor changes can impact users. That said, WordPress has a documented philosophy around development: <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2010/04/20/deadlines-are-not-arbritrary-theyre-a/" target="_blank">deadlines are not arbitrary</a>. Schedules can shift if results demand it, but there's a clear focus on making commitments and sticking to timelines. 
Such is life. We hope to see 5.9 on January 25th.
What is included in WordPress 5.9?
According to WordPress, 5.9 is expected to be a ground-breaking release. It will introduce the next generation of themes with <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/06/introducing-twenty-twenty-two/" target="_blank">Twenty Twenty-Two</a> joining the party and over 30 theme blocks to build all parts of your site.
Here's a sneak peek video of 5.9:
<div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XvEG9XWD4JI" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div>
 
<h2>commercetools Acquires Frontastic, adds composable frontend capabilities to headless commerce</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/11/commercetools_frontastic_featured.jpg" alt="Composite image of the commercetools and frontastic logos on a blended background" />
commercetools, a leading headless e-Commerce platform, recently <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/commercetools-acquires-frontastic-adds-composable-frontend-capabilities-to-headless-commerce/" target="_blank">announced</a> the acquisition of Frontastic, a composable frontend platform.
The purchase comes just a few months after commercetools announced a $140 million <a href="https://commercetools.com/press-releases/commercetools-secures-140m-series-c-funding-round-to-accelerate-global-growth" target="_blank">Series C funding round</a>. The company hopes it will broaden the reach of its game-changing commerce technology for creating differentiated user experiences.
"We've been partnering with the Frontastic team since the very beginning and see a huge market opportunity for their Composable Frontend Platform around the world," said Dirk Hoerig, CEO and Co-Founder of commercetools. "With this powerful combination, we're bringing the MACH (Microservices, API, Cloud, and Headless) movement to the mid-market as well as to digital business teams so that more companies can benefit from modern commerce experiences."
It's worth noting that commercetools was one of the earlier headless commerce platforms on the scene, helping to shape the modern standards for headless commerce. Their decoupled environment now enables a multitude of commerce capabilities across an ever-growing network of channels and endpoints. Like other platforms in the composable field, commercetools also embraces the <a href="https://machalliance.org/" target="_blank">MACH principles</a> – providing a truly open, modular environment that enables businesses to embrace innovation and respond to change quickly.

CMS Monthly Recap: MACH Alliance Announces New Members, GoDaddy Data Breach, commercetools Acquires Frontastic, and More

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Rarely does a week go by without a noteworthy update from WordPress, the heavyweight champion of CMS platforms.Much of the recent focus has been on enhancing the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/gutenberg-2-years-later-is-wordpress-better-off/">Gutenberg</a> framework and providing users of the open source platform – which powers roughly 64 million websites – with a stable and rewarding experience. Gutenberg, known in some circles as the “WordPress block editor,” was introduced in WordPress 5.0 in late 2018. It was the platform's answer to the next wave of low-code site builders like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/wix-announces-wixstores-wixjet/">Wix</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/squarespace-a-diy-website-builder-1/">Sqaurespace</a>, as well as WordPress community apps like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/elementor-hits-3-million-sites/">Elementor</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.elegantthemes.com/gallery/divi/">Divi</a>.While Gutenberg struggled to find terra firma in its early days (everyone hates change), it found more adoption as developers tapped its ability to create custom blocks and minimize shortcodes.In the latest update, WordPress Gutenberg 11.7, users will see some really nice enhancements and, as usual, a collective of bug fixes. Global styles and full site editing have been improved, the navigation editor experience has been made more intuitive, and you now have more control to adjust the spacing between columns.<h2>A more intuitive and lighter navigation experience</h2>The navigation block underwent a series of changes intended to provide a more intuitive navigation management experience. <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/10/design.png" alt="plus icon to add link" />Now, you can add links simply by <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/34899">clicking on the “+” icon</a> without an additional block selection step. Additionally, you can use a <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35196">slash inserter</a> to add a link. This is all part of the <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/34041">lighter navigation block experience</a> efforts.Navigation links can <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/34978">now be transformed</a> into other block types such as site logo, home link, or social icons. <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/10/navigation-links.png" alt="navigation links" />The navigation link now <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35324">supports custom font size and line height</a>. Link labels, such as “previous post,” may now be a <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/34952">part of the link to the post itself</a>. Mobile menus also <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35077">reflect the justification settings</a> of the desktop menus. <h2>Global styles and full site editing</h2>Global styles extend the capabilities of full site editing by bringing a higher level of customization to Gutenberg and WordPress. Together, these features enable users to have improved control over layouts and aesthetics beyond the context of single pages and posts. Global Styles also provide consistency across a website without having to edit individual blocks or pages.The site editor experience gets a full "spit and polish" in this new release. For example, the template editor now features a <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/34732">convenient back button</a> to ease returning to the site editor. <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/10/back-button-e1634763932360.png" alt="back button" />Switching between editing different template parts was made more accessible by listing the available areas in the <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35202">template details</a>.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/10/template-switching.png" alt="template switching" />The site editor was also equipped with <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35241">padding settings for specific template parts</a>. Color palette settings are also available in a <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35109">separate panel in the global styles sidebar</a>. Another cool feature: duotone support was extended to the <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35344">site logo block</a> for rendering logo elements in a duochromatic fashion.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/10/global-styles.png" alt="color palettes" /><h2>Columns block support for tweaking the gaps and margins</h2>Personally, we think this is the most exciting feature that Gutenberg 11.7 brings. The columns block now <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/34630">allows you to adjust the space between the columns</a> and the margins surrounding the block. Combined with <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35241">customizable template part padding</a>, it is the most flexible layout-building experience Gutenberg has ever had. <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/10/column-spacing.gif" alt="column spacing" /><h2>Other notable highlights</h2>11.7 adds the <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35083">ability to create pages</a> directly from the link popup. Up to this point, it was only possible via the Navigation block – but now this feature is exposed on every link.The popup also <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/35143">underwent subtle visual adjustments</a>. In addition, <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35060">empty links can no longer be added</a>, making adding one by mistake even harder. <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/10/empty-link.png" alt="empty link checker" />You can see the complete list of new Gutenberg 11.7 features and bug fixes <a target="_blank" href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/14/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-7-october-13th/">here</a>.

WordPress Gutenberg 11.7 Enhances Site Editing, Navigation Blocks, Column Spacing and More

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