Re: Open Source CMS Solutions

> I had created psychology web
> journals and a peer review process all in perl with mySQL running on
Apache.
> All for free. There is a website I've had running since 1996 with the same
> perl scripts and the same database that hasn't gone down once in 7 years.
No
> COTs CMS vendor can make the same claim.
>
> Of course, the usual rebuttal is that perl and PHP are not robust enough
> development platforms to do serious development on. I totally disagree and
> have a pile of evidence and experience to support my opinion.

Actually Matt, your experience isn't surprising.  But I believe you are
comparing apples to oranges. The difference is the level of complexity. It
is not uncommon for the average large-scale CM implementation (no matter if
it is built in-house or COTS) to involve several applications or more,
integrated -- in some fashion --  with a dozen or more external
applications, typically across more than one platform, and geographical
location.  And these days with all the M&A activity, the situation has only
worsened.

Last year my in-house development team built its own CM (single Linux
server, PHP, mySQL,  w/no external dependencies) after 2 years of using
another product.  PHP is quite capable of handling the requirements we've
thrown at it, but our design is (thankfully) not as complex as the systems
I've worked with in the past.  I'd be very surprised it ever "goes down".
It is more likely the hardware will fail first.

> The Truth From the Trenches
> There are some interesting statistics that CIOs should be aware of before
> making the leap: 20% to 25% of CMS solutions will become shelfware
> (Gartner). At around a million dollars an implementation, this is really
> pretty expensive shelfware.

You gotta love Gartner stats. This information isn't at all helpful to CM
users.  The percentage of purchases that end up shelfware varies with the
different market segments, and the gap between expectations and reality.
While I don't have stats, I do have first hand experience.  Generally
speaking, folks who purchase a one-size-fits-all system are far more likely
to be unhappy with the results than those who seek out a product designed
specifically for their line of business.

Joe

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