The Next Generation Web CMS, Has Modera Got Answers?

By Barb Mosher (@barbmosher) Jul 29, 2009

Web Content Management 1.0 is dead! So says Forrester Senior Analyst, Stephen Powers. There are few that would disagree with him — I mean hey, there's like "2.0" all over the place these days. We need some for CMS too, right?

But more importantly, what's next? That is indeed the question.

And so when we saw Modera (news, site) take a £1.3 million (roughly US$ 1.8 mil.) investment and announce intentions to build its next generation web application framework, we were intrigued.

Have they got the secret sauce for generation deux-point-zero content management? We went to Siim Vips (great name!), CEO of Modera, for the answer to that question. Here's what we learned.

A Modera Backgrounder

In operation since 2000, Modera started life in Estonia, but has since spread its wings. They currently operate two legal entities: Modera USA Inc. in North America and South America, and Modera Consulting, Ltd. in Europe and other regions worldwide.

They have a wide range of customers that include players in real estate and publishing, and automotive giants like Nissan. Their product line includes:

Modera Webmaster: A Web CMS solution for public-facing websites
Modera Intranet: A Web CMS solution for intranets
Modera Extranet: A Web CMS solution for extranets
Modera Relations: A Customer Relationship Management solution

Products Built on a Common Framework

All of these offerings are built upon the Modera.Net Web Application Framework. The framework itself is built using the LAMP stack of open source technologies. But it also takes advantage of some commercial components.

Competition-wise, Modera sits somewhere in the middle of the market, according to Vips, with clients in the mid-range up to the enterprise level. Their pricing seems to agree with this — there are Standard, Professional and Enterprise versions on offer.

Standard LAMP Competition

When talking about competing products, Vips mentioned that they've seen Drupal in the same spaces several times. That doesn't tell us a whole lot though — Drupal seems to be gaining steam about as fast as anything out there. It's a rather common sight these days. We're sure that Joomla is also bumped into here and there. And for the Intranet solutions, it would not surprise us if vendors like Alfresco, Liferay, Nuxeo and perhaps SharePoint compete for Modera's business.

[Editor's Note: See recent Drupal news: Commercial Drupal Firm Acquia Lands $8 Million More Funding.]

Built on Open Source, But Not

Despite the fancy ".Net" suffix of their framework's name, Modera is built on an open source stack of technologies. But with that said, they are not an open source solution.

Vips indicated that while the stack is primarily LAMP-based, they do take advantage of some technologies and features that commercially available products have. The core of Modera.Net is closed, but Modera offers an API and a Modera Module Development Kit (MMDK) that enables organizations to develop their own modules in-house.

While they don't, as a company, contribute back to the open source community, Vips says that some of their developers are involved in the community.

On the "Web CMS 1.0 is Dead" Message

Forrester has been recently making noise about how the first generation of web content management ("1.0") is dead. We asked Vips what he thought about this. He agreed, saying that it is not just about managing content online, it's not just about content management. It's about managing business processes and having a vibrant and functional content lifecycle.