More Talk than Action on Web CMS in the Cloud

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Irina Guseva, Senior Analyst

When a vendor says they 'do cloud,' it could mean various different things, so customers need to dig into the details to assess potential business value.

Boston, MA (PRWEB) November 12, 2013

While the cloud has risen to the forefront of many enterprise agendas, traditional Web CMS vendors are struggling to roll out versions that take full advantage of cloud-based services, according to independent analyst firm, The Real Story Group.

As Web Content & Experience Management customers seek to free up IT resources, vendors have responded with varying cloud-based options. RSG's most recent major update to its Web CMS Report now includes "cloudability" among its evaluation criteria of 36 vendors.

RSG defines cloudability as the extent to which a particular solution can get deployed in a cloud: by the customer, the vendor, or a third party. This can include Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) models.

All three of these models obviate the need to run WCM technology on-premise, but each has its pros and cons. RSG Senior Analyst Irina Guseva points out, "When a vendor says they 'do cloud,' it could mean various different things, so customers need to dig into the details to assess potential business value."

Vendor options include:

1. The vendor or a partner installs an on-prem version in a datacenter somewhere. This is really just managed hosting.
2. The vendor or a partner hosts your Web CMS in a public cloud service, like Rackspace, Amazon, or Azure. In this case, you will need to manage multiple supplier relationships.
3. The vendor has built a multitenant, SaaS solution, usually running in their datacenters. This model has proven surprisingly thin in the marketplace.

Customers report growing pains with the IaaS approach in particular, including unexpectedly high cloud service provider costs, network and security complexity, and integration difficulties.

"Vendors, consultants, and analysts throw the term 'cloud' around loosely, so make sure you know what you’re really getting when you sign the contract," concludes RSG Founder, Tony Byrne.

About The Real Story Group

The Real Story Group, established in 2001, is a buyer's advocate for enterprises looking to invest in digital workplace and marketing technologies. We provide research and advisory services to support end users through technology selection and implementation. We publish independent vendor evaluations that help IT executives sort out suitable technology choices to fit their particular scenarios. Our research is known for its technical depth, readability, and absolute neutrality.

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