Articles

WP Engine Article

<hr /> If you haven't heard, there was some legal news yesterday. Big news.I’m not talking about the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.npr.org/2024/12/10/nx-s1-5224170/infowars-alex-jones-the-onion-bankruptcy-judge">failed bid by satirical media site The Onion</a> to buy Alex Jones’ far-right empire, including the defrocked Infowars website. Yesterday, a bankruptcy judge squashed the deal, ruling that the auction process was unfair. No, I’m speaking of the other statutory quagmire weighing down the CMS world: the ongoing drama betwixt <a target="_blank" href="https://automattic.com/">Automattic</a>, the parent company of <a target="_blank" href="https://wordpress.com/">WordPress.com</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/wp-engine">WP Engine</a> – a third-party WordPress hosting platform.Conjunction injunction, will WordPress function… for WP Engine? Despite the scorched earth ruckus that’s been playing out, it will – at least based on Tuesday’s ruling. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/10/24318350/automattic-restore-wp-engine-access-wordpress/">According to The Verge</a> (which has done yeoman’s work covering this blusterous saga), a California district judge ordered Automattic to cease blocking WP Engine’s access to <a target="_blank" href="https://wordpress.org/">WordPress.org</a>. This includes removing the <a target="_blank" href="https://wordpressenginetracker.com/">“WP Engine Tracker”</a> that Automattic deployed, listing the number of sites that have left the hosting platform since the start of the dispute – which has fallen precipitously since September 21st – and tearing down the now <a target="_blank" href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/9/24266426/the-latest-volley-in-the-wordpress-beef">infamous checkbox</a> on the WordPress login that asks users to verify they’re not affiliated with WP Engine. <img style="width:79.97%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/12/wordpress-wpengine-tracker.png" alt="" />The WordPress WP Engine Tracker, as of December 11, 2024. Image: CMS Critic Further, Automattic and its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattm/">CEO Matt Mullenweg</a> will have to relinquish their control of WP Engine’s <a target="_blank" href="https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/">Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin</a>, a popular WordPress resource that allows developers to create custom content fields for websites. In many ways, this was the hot potato in the proverbial oven, as many WP Engine customers were furious about the uncertainty surrounding its status.<h3 id="just-to-recap-the-backstory">Just to recap the backstory</h3>After the initial action from Automattic, WP Engine <a target="_blank" href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/3/24261016/wordpress-wp-engine-lawsuit-automattic-matt-mullenweg">filed a lawsuit accusing</a> Automattic and Mullenweg of doing “irreparable harm” to its business, asking the court to intercede and restore WP Engine’s access to <a target="_blank" href="http://wordpress.org/">WordPress.org</a>. That court filing led to a contentious and very public campaign against WP Engine, in which Mullenweg called out WP Engine for misuse of the WordPress trademark. Perhaps in a more scathing rebuke, he also suggested the company had not been good stewards of the WordPress open source community, failing to sufficiently contribute to the platform’s ongoing innovation.For the record, I tried reaching out to multiple sources since the beginning of the drama. This includes trusted open source community members and people on the inside from both ends of the spectrum. Unfortunately, given the legal sensitivities, no one was willing to comment at the time. Now that a ruling has materialized – albeit preliminary – there might be more transparent reflection from all parties. We’ll see.Has this entire episode shaken the confidence of WordPress developers and practitioners? No doubt about it. Just read the tirade of social media comments that criticized both parties. Additionally, there’s been mounting negativity from contributors who have been vocal about their perception of the situation – a signal that things could be shifting in the future as developers assess the aftermath of this episode. The dispute has also exposed a fragile vulnerability that perhaps rivals zero-day open source security exploits, demonstrating how the human factor (vis-à-vis the politics of ego and the pursuit of profit) might present unforeseen risks to WordPress agencies, businesses, and the ocean of community developers.<h3 id="so-what-happens-next?-">So what happens next? </h3>Historians might be grappling with this chapter of web legacy for years to come. A lot depends on the fallout. There has been direct and collateral damage, to be sure – and given the visible personalities involved, we can probably expect further action. Does that mean more bellicose rhetoric? We’ll have to wait and see. From a more existential framework, I would contend that WordPress isn’t projecting the same level of gravitas it once did. To be clear, I spent a season of my career building, managing, and migrating to and from this CMS. I know it well. Maybe too well. Heck, the previous version of this blog was powered by WordPress and hosted on WP Engine and I rarely had any issues. It was stable and reliable. Sure, I had to facilitate updates and manage our custom-built plugins. But having that level of control was part of the fun, part of the magic that is website design and development. Maybe the operative question is: will WordPress continue to be a place where fresh minds and ambitious young developers flock to? Today, it still powers the largest share of websites on the open web, but is it in danger of becoming less relevant? Is a situation like this serving as a lynchpin for change – or a stark reminder that it is no longer the up-and-coming disruptor that it once was?I believe in open source. We all use it up and down the stack, from Linux to Docker. It is fundamental to how we code and create. On the CMS level, I’ve vocally advocated for the analyst community to give open source platforms the fair shake they deserve in the scope of their grids. I’ve also written about the efforts of organizations like the <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/drupal-joomla-typo3-and-wordpress-join-forces-in-new-open-website-alliance">Open Web Alliance</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/the-swiss-dont-miss-on-open-source-how-switzerlands-embag-law-is-evolving-the-oss-landscape">countries like Switzerland</a> that are embracing open source in meaningful ways. At the same time, users and practitioners ought to have material opportunities for generating equitable revenue by using open source software as part of their business strategy. As these platforms aired their dirty laundry on a very public stage, they've been influencing the decision-making for new and existing developers and businesses, perhaps deepening the rift and raising questions about the solvency of building in this ecosystem. Will that manifest in slowing growth? Again, the historians will love unpacking this. If you visit Automattic’s website, the first thing you’ll read is a very simple mission statement: “We are passionate about making the web a better place.” If that’s true, then maybe tearing down the oligarchical power structures is the first step. And that’s not directed towards one side of the field. There’s plenty that can be done to reinforce better standards, greater transparency, and generally “good karma” from both Automattic and WP Engine. Both parties have beneficial attributes, and both had solvent points to make in this dispute.Regardless of the outcome, we can agree that leaving builders and businesses in limbo is the least constructive way to maintain trust. Hopefully, we can leave the scorched earth behind – and focus on green fields.  <hr /><h4 style="text-align:center" id="looking-for-guidance-on-wordpress-or-wp-engine?--talk-to-us.-">Looking for guidance on WordPress or WP Engine?  <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/contact">Talk to us. </a></h4><hr /><h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-2025"><a href=" https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25">CMS Kickoff 2025</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaMeet industry leaders at our third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global CMS event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">so secure your tickets today.</a> <img style="width:30.46%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/cms-summit-25.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-summit-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit25">CMS Summit 25</a></h4>May 13-14, 2025 – Frankfurt, GermanyDon't miss the first European edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community! CMS Summit 25 will bring together top-notch speakers, our renowned learning format, and engaging social events. Hear from leading practitioners like Deutsche Bahn, Dr. Oetker, and more – and join customers, agencies, and CMS vendors as we discuss current trends and what's ahead for the content and digital experience fields. Connect and network at the only vendor-neutral, in-person conference focused on CMS. Space is limited for this exclusive event, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit25">so book your seats today.</a>

WP Engine wins an injunction against Automattic. Is the WordPress 'scorched earth' campaign over?

matt-garrepy

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

paris-tuzun

Featured image of April monthly recap of an umbrella with raindrops

As the U.S. heads into the Fourth of July holiday weekend, we've got some fireworks on display across the digital experience stack. 
Let's light things up with some of the biggest news we've been following this month.
 
<h2>Constant Contact to acquire SharpSpring</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/constant-contact-sharpspring-1.jpg" alt="Constant Contact and SharpSping logos " />
<a href="https://www.constantcontact.com/" target="_blank">Constant Contact</a>, the e-commerce focused marketing platform, announced it has signed a <a href="https://news.constantcontact.com/2021-06-22-Clearlake-Capital-and-Siris-Backed-Constant-Contact-Agrees-to-Acquire-SharpSpring" target="_blank">definitive agreement to acquire</a> SharpSpring. Backed by Clearlake Capital Group and Siris Capital, the all-cash transaction is valued at approximately $240 million.
<a href="https://sharpspring.com/" target="_blank">SharpSpring</a> is a cloud-based marketing automation platform that improves the effectiveness of marketing strategies for small businesses (SMBs). A preferred toolkit for digital agencies, SharpSpring helps generate leads, improve conversions to sales, and drive higher returns on marketing investments. 
Nearly a household name across the digital marketing community, Constant Contact is a legacy platform that provides a full suite of marketing tools catering mainly to small businesses, freelancers, and nonprofits. Constant Contact continues to be one of the most recognized services for managing email marketing campaigns but has more recently added <a href="https://www.constantcontact.com/website" target="_blank">website building features</a> and social media marketing capabilities. 
With the integration of SharpSpring, Constant Contact's users will be able to easily engage customers throughout their journey and deliver better marketing-driven results. SharpSpring also brings a layer of CRM capabilities to the mix, allowing Constant Contact to elevate and evolve the customer experience.
"Constant Contact and SharpSpring share a mission to help small businesses succeed, and this acquisition represents a powerful opportunity to combine our best-in-class email and e-commerce offerings with SharpSpring's strong suite of revenue growth and marketing automation tools," said Frank Vella, CEO at Constant Contact. "Today's Constant Contact retains the customer-first culture that defined our heritage, and I am excited to expand upon that with a commitment to innovation that will accelerate our growth and build upon the passion and agility that has made our brand a leader in digital marketing for so many years."
<h2>WP Engine launches Premier, its new enterprise WordPress platform</h2>
<img style="max-width:899px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/wpengine-premier.png" alt="WPEngine Premier" />
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/wp-engine-releases-worlds-first-study-of-the-wordpress-economy-cites-awe-inspiring-numbers/" target="_blank">WPEngine</a>, a digital experience platform for WordPress, has <a href="https://wpengine.com/blog/wp-engine-launches-premier-enterprise-wordpress-platform/" target="_blank">announced</a> the launch of Premier – a new enterprise platform that delivers improved security, performance, and scalability. 
An established <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/wp-engine-releases-worlds-first-study-of-the-wordpress-economy-cites-awe-inspiring-numbers/" target="_blank">leader in managed WordPress hosting and services</a>, WP Engine powers the top 200,000 websites by traffic, making it one of the most trusted brands on the market. Now, with the addition of Premier, the DXP will offer enterprise-grade security for WordPress – a sought-after requirement for many organizations concerned about the risks posed by WordPress. 
As part of their enterprise strategy, WP Engine completed a <a href="https://www.imperva.com/learn/data-security/soc-2-compliance/" target="_blank">SOC 2 Type II</a> examination to ensure that Premier met the highest standards of security and availability. It also features protection from unauthenticated file system access, managed web application firewall (WAF), DDoS mitigation, and encrypted global network routing.
For WP Engine customers, Premier is an island of stability in a sea of open source. The new platform boasts a 99.99% uptime SLA, a global network of data centers, managed CDN, <a href="https://wpengine.com/evercache/" target="_blank">WP Engine Evercache</a> (proprietary front-end caching), and automatic PHP and WordPress updates. This mix could have a dramatic influence on organizations as they consider modernizing and re-platforming on WordPress for enterprise applications. 
"Enterprises need more time focusing on their customers and growing their business, rather than worrying about the security and scale of the technology they use," said Lisa Box, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Enterprise for WP Engine.
To learn more about WP Engine's Premier Enterprise WordPress platform, visit the <a href="https://wpengine.com/enterprise/" target="_blank">Premier web page.</a>
<h2>Salesforce and AWS expand partnership with key integrations</h2>
<img style="max-width:770px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/aws-salesforce.jpg" alt="AWS Salesforce logos" />
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/reviews/salesforce-cms-review-evolving-a-crm-powerhouse-into-a-dxp-challenger/" target="_blank">Salesforce</a>, the world's leading CRM platform – and <a href="https://www.aws.com" target="_blank">AWS</a>, the industry's undisputed champion of the cloud – <a href="https://www.salesforce.com/news/press-releases/2021/06/23/salesforce-aws-partnership-expansion/" target="_blank">announced</a> a significant expansion to their global partnership. 
While the two tech giants have had an existing relationship for some time, they are now offering an enhanced set of capabilities that will make it easier for developers to build and launch custom applications in Salesforce that natively leverage AWS services. This tighter integration will also connect data and workflows securely across both ecosystems.
Custom coding has long been a requirement for integrating AWS and Salesforce, but this expanded offering will enable customers to use both platforms seamlessly through a set of unified capabilities. The companies have also collaborated on new low-code tools to help customers build innovative applications that connect data in real-time between Salesforce applications and AWS services. 
"For more than five years, our customers have benefitted from a tight relationship between AWS and Salesforce. Now, we are taking the partnership to the next level by integrating our offerings so developers using both AWS and Salesforce can build unified applications much faster and simpler than ever before," said <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/andy-jassy-amazons-new-ceo-signals-bold-future-for-loud-and-digital-experiences/" target="_blank">Andy Jassy</a>, CEO of Amazon Web Services. "With this partnership, we are significantly simplifying developers' lives and empowering them to develop applications however they want, from wherever they want globally, at any scale."
You can read all the details of the new capabilities in the <a href="https://www.salesforce.com/news/press-releases/2021/06/23/salesforce-aws-partnership-expansion/" target="_blank">Salesforce press release</a>.
<h2>Joomla 4 RC 1 and Joomla 3.10 Alpha 8 are here</h2>
<img style="max-width:870px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/joomla4-400-rc1.jpg" alt="Joomla 4" />
The Joomla! Project <a href="https://www.joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5839-joomla-4-rc-3-and-joomla-3-10-alpha-8-are-here.html" target="_blank">announced</a> the availability of the first <a href="https://joom.la/4rc3" target="_blank">Joomla! CMS 4.0 Release Candidate 3</a> and <a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/releases/tag/3.10.0-alpha8" target="_blank">Joomla 3.10 Alpha 8</a>. These releases are aimed at extension and template developers so they can prepare their products for the stable release of Joomla! CMS 4.0. 
Here are a few of the standout features:
Joomla4Accessibility: Accessibility is a must with every modern digital experience, and Joomla! 4 delivers some marked improvements from the ground up. The platform aims for <a href="https://www.w3.org/" target="_blank">W3C Accessibility Guidelines</a> (WCAG) 2.0 with AA compliance – and the layout, contrast, and infrastructure all have accessibility built-in at a foundational level.
Joomla4Speed: Whether a website is focused on e-commerce or static content, speed is one of the top factors impacting conversions. With Joomla! 4, users can benefit from increased load time and performance, which can improve the overall customer experience. 
Joomla4Workflows: Combined with a number of improvements in the media manager, Joomla!'s new workflow and media manager are designed to streamline processes and help users work more efficiently with their content operations. 
Joomla4Emails: From a marketing automation perspective, Joomla! now lets you craft and deliver customized emails with its new templating system, allowing for greater control over branding and formatting.
Joomla4Search: With advanced filtering and indexing, Joomla! 4 boasts a boost to search with its enhanced capabilities.
<h2>OpenText and Hyland named "Leaders" in Content Platforms by Forrester</h2>
<img style="max-width:600px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/forrester-wave-content-platforms-2021.gif" alt="Forrester Wave Content Platforms 2021" />
It's hard to believe that it's already Q2 of 2021. Like clockwork, Forrester has issued its quarterly Wave Report for Content Platforms, and both <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/opentext-adds-new-content-services-to-power-modern-work-in-the-cloud/" target="_blank">OpenText</a> and <a href="https://www.hyland.com/" target="_blank">Hyland</a> are battling out the pole position with <a href="https://www.microsoft.com" target="_blank">Microsoft</a>. 
OpenText <a href="https://www.opentext.com/about/press-releases?id=D5A0D9EE2F914B948C0C0722E5F2B23B" target="_blank">announced</a> that its Extended ECM has been named a "Leader" in the <a href="https://www.opentext.com/info/ecm/forrester-wave" target="_blank">Q2 2021 Wave Report,</a> receiving the highest possible scores in the criteria of support for team or project workspaces, packaged applications, integration and interoperability, and lifecycle management.
OpenText's product strategy and focus on enterprise applications have been amplified by its multi-year cloud investment. In April, OpenText also launched its cloud-native SaaS offering, <a href="https://blogs.opentext.com/introducing-opentext-core-content/" target="_blank">Core Content</a>, built on its OT2 platform. All of this is shifting the dynamics in its favor, and Forrester is clearly taking notice – as they are only trailing Microsoft. 
Likewise, Hyland has also been <a href="https://www.hyland.com/en/learn/it-programs/forrester-wave-content-services-Q2-2021" target="_blank">named a "Leader"</a> in the report, buoyed by its cloud and innovation strategy and its vertical focus. If you recall, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/hyland-enters-agreement-to-acquire-nuxeo/" target="_blank">Hyland purchased Nuxeo</a> in March of this year, giving the platform some extra juice with both enterprise content management (ECM) and digital asset management (DAM) capabilities. 
Hyland is clearly driving digital transformation with a modern and forward-thinking approach, leveraging a cloud-first vision and a variety of scalable cloud offerings – including the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/hyland-acquires-alfresco-focuses-on-cloud-and-global-expansion-of-enterprise-cms/" target="_blank">Alfresco Digital Business Platform.</a> Additionally, Hyland is gaining ground with its wide array of options, including open platform development, low-code toolkits, and repeatable, specialized industry and departmental solutions. 
<h2>Firecrackers, anyone?</h2>
We prefer bottle rockets, but that's just us. From the entire staff at CMS Critic, we wish you a safe and happy Independence Day.

CMS Monthly Recap: WP Engine Launches Enterprise WordPress Platform, Salesforce and AWS Expand Partnership, and More

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Ready to drop your jaw?
<a href="https://wpengine.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WP Engine</a>, a leading <a href="https://wordpress.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WordPress</a> digital experience platform for websites and apps, <a href="https://wpengine.com/wordpress-economy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">just released a comprehensive study</a> of the “WordPress Economy.”
Simply put: the numbers are staggering.
The research – which was carried out in the US, UK, and Australia – suggests that 41% of the internet is currently built on WordPress, representing over 82 million websites. It also reveals that WordPress powers 35% of the top 10,000 sites by traffic, making it the open source force behind some of the top-performing websites on the planet.
Perhaps the most mind-boggling metrics were from the financial side of the study. According to WP Engine, the economic value of WordPress is estimated to be around $597 billion. As if that wasn’t enough, the research forecasts a 6.5% increase in 2021 – bringing the total value to $636 billion.
That’s over half a trillion dollars.
WP Engine also provided some interesting context in their report. For example: if the WordPress Economy were the market cap of a company, it would rank 10th – making it one of the largest companies in the world, and in the same league as Amazon and Walmart.
And if that example wasn’t shocking enough, try this one on for size: if the WordPress economy were a country, it would rank 39th in the world based on the IMF’s GDP rankings.
<h2>Accelerating digital transformation in the digital economy</h2>
When your head stops spinning, you might ask why and how these numbers escalated to epic proportions. According to the study, the answer can (almost) be summed up in a single word: pandemic. 
According to <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/how-covid-19-has-pushed-companies-over-the-technology-tipping-point-and-transformed-business-forever" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a study by McKinsey &amp; Company</a>, 36% of all global customer interactions in 2019 happened online – and by 2020, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, that number had ballooned to 58%. In the U.S. alone, digital interactions climbed from 41% to 65% in the same time period.
While the pandemic appears to be waning, its impact will be felt for many years to come – and a new urgency to compete on the digital playing field has become the status quo.
As noted in the WP Engine study, the businesses that pivoted to digital early in the pandemic have emerged successful, and in some cases even thrived. Thanks to flexible, open source software like WordPress, large segments of the economy – from small brick-and-mortar stores to large global brands – have adapted to meet customers’ digital behaviors and demands.
While the "gig economy" was already a well-documented phenomenon, the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated a sweeping shift to remote work. This may have contributed to the overall impact on individual incomes, which were likely elevated by higher demand for digital services. In fact, nearly half of all respondents in the study said that 25% to 100% of their personal income is represented by WordPress – and that users who work with the platform more than 15 hours a week derive 48% of their income from WordPress.
This groundswell of increased WordPress use is tied to an average income increase of 0.1% across all markets, which represents an estimated $610 million impact on the overall economy.
<h2>Understanding the scope of the WordPress study</h2>
Given the explosive growth of WordPress, WP Engine commissioned this study to better understand the breadth, reach, and potential of the ecosystem.
In partnership with research firm <a href="https://www.vansonbourne.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vanson Bourne</a> and the <a href="https://www.gold.ac.uk/institute-management-studies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Institute of Management Studies (IMS) at Goldsmiths University of London</a>, the research was focused on the economic value and social impact of WordPress. The respective firms conducted reviews of academic and industry literature, as well as survey-based valuations of 103 research group members, 400 businesses, and 400 WordPress end users.
The study also included a diverse group of over 100 collaborators and co-marketers representing a cross-section of the WordPress ecosystem that derive revenue from the open source platform.
Based on the results of the study, WP Engine suggests that flexibility, lower total cost of ownership (TCO), and a growing open source community are the key factors that have made WordPress the most popular choice for a wide range of users.
The broader WordPress ecosystem is also a force multiplier. With over 500 hosting providers, 11,000 themes, and 60,000 plugins, WordPress has far surpassed the scope of any other website building platform. And with a CMS market share of nearly 65%, WordPress is nearly unreachable in terms of scale; in fact, the next most-used CMS, Shopify, has only a 5.5% market share.
<h2>A Legacy of WordPress innovation</h2>
Since its launch in 2003, WordPress has grown from a humble blogging engine to the worldwide de facto standard for building and managing websites.
Along the way, WP Engine emerged as a laser-focused WordPress hosting provider, working to make the open source framework more secure, scalable, and trusted – so it can meet the challenges of the digital economy head-on.
With more than 90,000 customers, WP Engine delivers a range of features that help fortify WordPress in key gap areas, providing DDoS mitigation, dev tools, SSL/CDN, backups, and even 24/7 dedicated support.
<h2>What does this study mean for the future of WordPress?</h2>
The power and reach of WordPress is undeniable. In less than two decades, it has shaped the internet in profound ways, and this research codifies its sweeping impact.
What’s abundantly clear is how WordPress has democratized the internet for builders at every level of the market. Once the niche domain of PHP developers and independent bloggers, the platform is now trusted by leading media brands like the <a href="https://wordpress.com/notable-users/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Times</a> and public sector entities like <a href="https://wordpress.org/showcase/the-white-house/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The White House</a>.
While open source is undoubtedly one of the biggest advantages to WordPress, it remains one of its most persistent challenges. As companies wrestle with increased security requirements and heightened compliance around data privacy, WordPress struggles with risks from outdated plugins, themes, and other exploitable vulnerabilities.
When it comes to the eCommerce horizon, WordPress also faces growing headwinds from players like <a href="https://www.shopify.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shopify</a> and other services that offer complete solutions. Additionally, the wave of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headless_content_management_system" target="_blank" rel="noopener">headless CMS</a> options continues to grow, providing developers with secure and scalable choices that are more purpose-built for API and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-jamstack-static-site-generators-for-2021/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">JAMstack</a> applications.
But this is where WP Engine continues to prove its value as an industry-leading platform. Their solution provides an answer to many of the challenges that exist with WordPress, powering more than 1.5 million digital experiences with trusted, managed solutions. While competition continues to increase up and down the CMS and DXP stack, WordPress on WP Engine looks to have a very promising future ahead.
We highly recommend reading this study. But put down your drink first. These numbers are… well… intimidating.
<h2>About WP Engine</h2>
WP Engine, the WordPress technology company, provides the most relied upon and trusted brands and developer-centric WordPress products for companies and agencies of all sizes, including managed WordPress hosting, enterprise WordPress, headless WordPress, Flywheel, Local and Genesis. WP Engine’s tech innovation and award-winning WordPress experts help to power more than 1.5 million sites across 150 countries.

WP Engine Releases World’s First Study of the WordPress Economy, Cites Awe-Inspiring Numbers

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