CMS Hardtalk

I have followed Sitecore the last 10 years. They have (IMHO) a relatively good product and a great position in the WCMS market. They have allways been 10 feets away from putting down other products and business models, and allways focused on their own abilities. Therefore I was wery surprised to see such an agression in “The Siren Song of Open Source CMS” paper. From my perspective it’s an indication that the Open Source Business Models (including Open Source WCMS) is alive and a real thread to traditional business models within the WCMS Spere.

Today I read the document “The Siren Song of Open Source CMS” that is merely an interview with AgencyQ, a Sitecore Partner of Sitecore that have been through the process of choosing CMS for “Enterprise” Solutions.

What they say in “The Siren Song of Open Source CMS”

I have from the document made a summary of the from AgencyQ’s experiences with Opens Source (e.g Drupal CMS) vs. Closed Source / Sitecore CMS:

Myth #1: Open Source Applications’ Scalability
and Capabilities Are as Good as Commercial Software

If you mess with the kernel code you are stock when upgrading. In propritarian software you don’t have admittance to the kernel code. Problem solved.

In Open Source you have to build everything by yourself. Expensive – short time and long-term.

Open Source doesn’t scale by nature and it is not forgiving if you don’t know the CMS Software (“If you go down the open source road, you’d better know exactly what you’re doing.”).

Licenses is only 5 %, focus on the other 95%.

Myth #2: Open Source Is Well-supported by a
Community of Developers

Experience: “Lack of support has a ripple effect across an open source CMS
project”

You need a more traditional support with a developer to keep customers happy.

Myth #3: Open Source Is Cheaper than Commercial Software

TCO of Open Source software is way higher than traditional software.

My comments:

When they write: “Sitecore enables business users to make changes, such as day-to-day content management, very easily, without requiring a programmer to step in.” – it is assumed that it is not an option in Open Source CMS implementation. That is just propaganda IMHO.

The article have a lot of good point which I agree in, but it .. 

• Compare Open Source Options with Commercial Features. Regarding Open Source CMS: You CAN get support by a traditional Partner and most Open Source Vendors have an option to support your WCMS. 
• Generalizes Open Source CMS and Closed Source CMS more than than it is reasonable to do. All Closed Source commercial CMS have the same quality, that is true for Open Source CMS as well. You simply can’t tell if it is good quality from the business model!
• States that only 5% of implementation costs is to be assigned for Software. In our experience this only conforms to huge WCMS projects. Normally it is more likely to allocate 20% (and beside that allocate another 20% within 5 years).

I have been engaged in quite a lot Open Source CMS implementations and Closed Source CMS implementations. Lots of the problems and challenges in technology projects is due to missing skills and experience at the partner/developers. If you choose the wrong partner, then you are in trouble no matter what. In that respect I think the article has a strange perspective on the Open Source vs. Closed Source CMS Products.

Download the document (“The Siren Song of Open Source CMS” ) and make your own conclusion from the document.

Additionally: Check out this Pros and Cons of Open Source WCMS.