It’s going to happen sooner or later. Someone will ask, “Would you like some SaaS with that CMS? What?!

You decide that it’s time to start putting time and research into a new CMS Platform. Whether you call it a WCM (web content management), CXM (customer experience/engagement management), WEM (web engagement management), ECM (enterprise content management), or whatever, they are really just glorified marketing jargon for the same core requirement. That is, a collection of tools necessary to manage all of the various website technologies, bundled into a central system (CMS). Where these systems attempt to develop unique personalities (and contribute ingredients to the ‘CMS acronym soup’), is when vendors start providing substantial ‘add on’ features such as Social Marketing, Digital Marketing, Advanced Analytics, eCommerce, etc. These additional features generally live outside what is traditionally understood to be Content Management (CMS). Our preference is to simply refer to these more advanced, multifaceted software ‘bundles’ as Content Management Platforms. Keep it simple.

So in keeping with the K.I.S.S. philosophy, I’m going to way oversimplify some Cloud Computing terminology that you will run into when evaluating the best possible option based on your particular development capabilities.

CMS Acronym Soup with a dash of Cloud

Cloud? You Mean Like, up There?

Nope. So now, throw in all the ‘Cloud’ based software terminology and what you are left with is a maddening stew of technical geekery that would send any well intentioned marketing exec into a frenzied tailspin.

Thankfully, the process for taking your organization into the next phase is always the same regardless of your size or particular market: Requirements. There isn’t a single more important piece of the selection process.

• Why do you need a CMS anyway?
• Who is going to use it?
• Have you conducted very detailed interviews with the staff that will primarily engage with the new software?
• And what are your internal IT capabilities…

That last question will often lead you into the Cloud…

What’s all this SaaS Talk Anyway?

The intention of this post is to stay as non-technical as possible and try to ride between the lines of practicality. I know ‘just’ enough to be dangerous so this shouldn’t be too difficult.

Wikipedia actually does a pretty good job of describing cloud computing so check it out. In a nutshell, get ready for this, the Cloud is … THE INTERNET.. Whoa! No Way! .. Way..

So, it’s likely that I’ve way over simplified this but really, cloud computing is essentially storing and managing data on an external network, plain and simple. So, in most cases the term ‘in the Cloud’ is just a network ‘out there’. So don’t get intimidated by overzealous use of the term in order to sound super nerdy and cool.

Getting to the point, I’ll try to explain each of the 3 core Cloud based service options that you may find yourself confronted with, and how each would make sense in your specific scenario. My plan is to be as simple as possible so don’t expect to learn the intricate technical details of each solution. The 3 core offerings are Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS). Let’s dig in.

IaaS is designed to match a completely self sufficient internal IT and Development department to a remotely hosted data center (Infrastructure). It is highly scalable and designed to quickly meet fluctuating hardware demands. In my day this would be loosely considered Dedicated Hosting. All of the hardware is leased by and controlled by the hosting provider. Your IT department has full reign to install and manage the OS and application layer. Whether that be  CMS, Intranet, eCommerce application or a mixture of all and more. As with any service there are many variations and feature solutions. So essentially you lease a complete Infrastructure from hardware, networking and connectivity. All ‘hardware’ based maintenance and upgrades are handled at the solution provider. You must have a very capable IT and Development team in order to select this method.

PaaS moves slightly more control out into the service provider’s hands. Here you would still need to have a capable developer on hand to configure and build the various web applications such as a CMS or website or whatnot. As well as the complete hardware and networking responsibilities, the PaaS solution provider also controls all web server specific software duties such as the Operating System, web services, database management, server backups, hardware and software RAIDs, etc… This additional layer is often referred to as ‘middleware’, which lies between the Hardware and Application layers. Again, I’m purposely being way over simplified in order to help with developing a general direction based on your internal resources.

SaaS is the ‘All In’ approach with everything handled by the solution provider. Remember that Hotmail account you setup in the very late 90′s? That was/is a SaaS service. Gmail, Dropbox, Salesforce; it’s infinite. With SaaS, you interact directly with the applications that have been pre-installed on the remotely hosted and managed web servers. These may be virtual or dedicated and may host many other web sites and organizations. The elasticity/scalability of this solution can be subject to the type of software you are subscribed to. For instance you are pretty much locked in to the vendor’s system (CMS) however you may be able to bolt on modules and add-on packs with ease. No core development is needed here other than a fluent understanding of the administrative and content editing functions of the platform (generally significant CMS training is necessary). Support is a huge factor for SaaS systems so be sure to research that to the nines when shortlisting vendors for a SaaS option. Many organizations opt for this option quite simply for the ease of use and time to market. Of course there are some exceptional cost savings when you eliminate the need for complete hardware and a whole development cycle. You are up and running in a matter of days as opposed to weeks and months with an internally managed and developed scenario.

Now that you’ve had a super high level primer,you too should be able to talk some SaaS with your buddies. Want more? You could catch a live webcast about this very subject over here: http://www.cms-connected.com/Web-Content-Management-in-the-Clouds. If you decide to register, consider submitting a question for the panel. They’ll answer it live on the show, so that’s pretty cool right?

As always, I welcome any and all feedback.