In completing The Web CMS Report 2008, we've again had a chance to observe significant changes in the Web content management (WCM) landscape, some merely continuations of themes we've cited before, others that are new. This article recaps a handful of the more noteworthy trends we're seeing.
Trend #1: A Return to Coupled Production and Delivery
Customers are more willing to consider Web content management systems that couple content production and delivery -- or put another way, systems that couple content management with website management. Vendors are responding accordingly.
One of the main drivers here is the business imperative to customize and optimize the consumption experience in a (near) real-time manner. Web 2.0 feeds into this phenomenon by fostering higher user expectations with regard to immediacy and responsiveness. AJAX has made it easy for widgets to either consume services or push data out to them in real time, blurring architectural boundaries. And user-generated content may mean the (re-)insertion of management services in the delivery tier.
