This document provides an overview and agenda for a technology seminar discussing technology platforms and decision criteria. It will cover the purpose of platforms, the planning and decision making process, and do a comparison of major open source platforms. The document defines technology platforms and outlines various decision criteria to consider, including technical requirements, business factors like costs, and open source versus proprietary software pros and cons. Useful links are also provided.

1. Working with Technology Seminar
Technology Platforms
& Decision Criteria
(overview)
VINOGRADOVO, October 9-10 2013

2. 2
• Technology and Digital Asset Management
• Content Delivery/Distribution Network
• About a particular platform and its features
Agenda: This session is not about

3. 3
1.Purpose of a Platform
2.Planning Process and Decision Criteria
3.Open Source vs Proprietary Software Platforms
4.Major Open Source Platforms comparison
Agenda: What we will cover?

4. 4
What is a technology platform?
General definition:
Technology platform is a term for technology that enables the creation of
products and processes that support present or future development.
Source: Wikipedia®
Definition related to computing platforms:
Platform is an underlying computer system on which application
programs can run.
Source: TechTarget
Definition related to digital publishing:
A set of tools that faciliates to create and provide a reliable, affordable and
easy to use way to develop, maintain and grow your web presence.

5. Decision criteria – preliminary questions:
 What is your current situation of your online
operations?
 How you're going to deploy the site?
 Do you have competence to decide on technology,
platform, framework, etc?
 Do you have the right people?
Always consider how easy it’ll be to move to another platform
(or another vendor) once you outgrow your first one.
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6. Decision criteria – selection process overview
 Briefing with staff
 Prioritized features list
 Evaluation
 Business considerations
 Vendor considerations
 Technical considerations
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7. Decision criteria: Technical considerations
 Infrastructure
 Scalability
 Integration
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8. Decision criteria: Technical considerations
 Infrastructure
 Scalability
 Integration
 System Requirements
 Security
 Support
 Ease of Use
 Management
 Interoperability
 Flexibility
 Built-in Apps/Plugins
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9. Decision criteria: Business considerations
What is included in a set-up/
implementation fee?
 Project Management
 Functional Specification
 Information Architecture
(structure and hierachy)
 Sketches/Mock-ups/Wire-Frames
 Web Design
 HTML/CSS coding of design
 System set up
 Customization
 Testing
 Approval
 Training
What is included in a regular
monthly fee?
 Hosting/Connection (SLA)
 Upgrades/Maintenance
 Bug fixing
 Change requests
 New features development
 Support
• Upgrade & Update Services
• Support Availability
• Critical Software Non-
Conformance
• Response/Resolution Time
• System & Network Availability
 What is excluded?
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Outsourced development and deployment

10. Decision criteria: Business considerations
Proprietary software
- means the company that developed
the software owns the software and
no one may duplicate it or distribute it
without that company's permission
Developed by closed group/
company
Sold to clients – many different
ways of licensing
May not distribute, copy or
modify
No access to source code
15 – 20% maintenance fee to
access patches, support
Open source software
- is free to use and provides the
original source code used to
create it, so anyone can modify
according to needs.
Developed by group of geographically
distributed developers, mostly for no
pay
Can be copied, modified, redistributed,
incorporated in other OSS apps freely
Some vendors charge for distributing it
(like Redhat Linux)
Use of open standards allows broader
interoperability
No vendor lock-in – can swap out OSS
with greater ease
Platform independence
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Which one better fits your needs?

11. Decision criteria: Open Source Pros & Cons?
PROS
A ready made community
Community driven =
community serving
No licence costs
No vendor lock in
Infinitely customizable
Investment is typically in
training staff rather than a third
party - staff development!
CONS
Fear of no-one to blame
No vendor guarantees
Project folding is more
common than vendor folding
Open source may be
incompatible with other
deployed software
Proprietary software is often
more feature rich
Documentation quality is
variable
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12. Decision criteria: Product evalution
1. Does your company have a technology
preference? (.NET, Java, PHP, Python, ...)
2. Do you care if the solution will be purchased via
a commercial license or via an open source
license model? (commercial, commercial/community open
source)
3. Do you care if the solution will be installed on
your enterprise servers or provided as a hosted
service? (On-premise or SaaS delivery models)
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13. Decision criteria: The most popular features of a CMS platform
 WYSIWYG editor
 SEO
 Media management
 Templates
 Plugins
 Social media extensions
 Statistics
 Link management
 Content syndication
 Workflow/Different
user levels
 Versioning/Archiving
 System updates
 Content Scheduling
 Discussion / Forum
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14. 14
Open Source CMS Comparison
Source: OpenXcell Technolabs

15. Open Source CMS Comparison
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CMSs by their Popularity meter
Source: OpenXcell Technolabs

16. Comparison: Functionality & Easy of use
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Source: OpenXcell Technolabs

17. Commercial platforms popular in Russia & Ukraine
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 1С-Битрикс - http://www.1c-bitrix.ru
 NetCat - http://netcat.ru/
 UMI.CMS - http://www.umi-cms.ru
 Amiro.CMS - http://www.amiro.ru
 HostCMS - http://hostcms.ru
 ABO.CMS - http://abocms.ru
 Twinlight CMS - http://www.twl.ru
 Informica - http://www.webway.ru/services/informica/
 (and many others ...)
Comparison online: http://www.cmslist.ru/find_cms/

18. Most popular CMS in Russia and Ukraine
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19. Useful Links in Russian and English
 WordPress CMS на русском языке
http://ru.wordpress.org/
 Joomla CMS на русском языке
http://joomla.ru
 Drupal CMS на русском языке
http://www.drupal.ru
 Бесплатные CMS системы
http://bestfreecms.ru/stati/
 Oбзор рынка систем управления
контентом
http://www.cmslist.ru
 ПРЕИМУЩЕСТВА И НЕДОСТАТКИ CMS
1С БИТРИКС (BITRIX)
http://seopure.ru/1s-bitriks/preimushhestva-i-nedostatki-cms-1s-bitriks-bitrix/
 Системы класса Content Manager
System
http://www.bestreferat.ru/referat-210409.html
 Плюсы и минусы использования CMS
(ЦМС)
http://alsites.ru/2013/05/plyusyi-i-minusyi-
ispolzovaniya-cms/
• Try out open source products online
with full admin access
http://www.opensourcecms.com
• CMS Comparison: Drupal, Joomla and
Wordpress
http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/
article/cms-comparison-drupal-joomla-
and-wordpress
• Choosing an open-source CMS
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9236
648/
• 2013 Best CMS Comparisons and
Reviews
http://cms-software-
review.toptenreviews.com/
• Why The Washington Post
Uses WordPress (video)
http://wordpress.tv/2013/07/29/yuri-victor-
why-the-washington-post-uses-wordpress/
• When Editors Design: Controlling
Presentation In Structured Content
http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2013/06
/26/controlling-presentation-in-structured-
content/
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