This document discusses and compares different technology stack options for building software solutions and applications. It begins by defining what a technology stack is. It then provides an overview of common layers that make up a technology stack, including web pages, web applications, data access layers, databases, and server architecture. The document goes on to compare WordPress, Drupal, and Django content management frameworks in terms of their pros and cons for different use cases. It emphasizes focusing on discovering user and business needs in order to determine the optimal technology solution.

1. TECH STACK

2. TECH STACK
“A technology stack comprises the
layers of components or services
that are used to provide a
software solution or application”.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_stack

3. TECH STACK

4. TECH STACK
Web Pages
Web Applications
Data Access Layer
Database(s)
Server Architecture

5. TECHNOLOGY IS
ONLY AS GOOD
AS THE
SOLUTIONS IT
PROVIDES

6. TECHNOLOGY IS ABOUT
SOLUTIONS
INTERSECTION OF NEEDS
Our job is to find out the optimal
intersection of your needs, your
customers’ needs, and the Business Requirements
capabilities of the technology at our User Interactions
disposal.
Technological
Capabilities

7. CONSIDERATIONS

8. FOCUS ON FRAMEWORK

9. BUT, LET’S FOCUS ON THE
REAL FOCUS

10. THE HUMAN
FRAMEWORK

12. WHAT DO WE NEED TO
DISCOVER?
What Your Customers Need What *You* Need

13. WHAT’S ON THE TABLE?
WORDPRESS
• WordPress is a simple content management system (geared for blogs).
DRUPAL
• Drupal is an advanced content management system (geared for communities).
DJANGO
• Django is a framework (geared for building).

14. WORDPRESS
PROS:
• It’s the de-facto standard for blogs and smaller CMS sites
• We ourselves are very familiar with it
• Very easy to find Wordpress Developers
• it’s written in a ubiquitous language (PHP)
CONS:
• It’s the de-facto standard for blogs and smaller CMS sites :) (target!)
• It’s built to be a Blog, anything else is stretching it
• as such, its data structure is ill-suited for anything more complex
than a blog
• It’s written in PHP, which is a problematic language

15. DRUPAL
PROS:
• You seem to be familiar with it
• It’s almost plug-and-play, if you’re not really customizing it
• It ships with features you need (e.g. multi-sites, multi-languages)
• it’s written in a ubiquitous language (PHP)
CONS:
• Behind the scenes, it’s not always pretty
• Customizing it becomes very problematic, very quickly (and we will
need to customize)
• It ships with a pre-set data structure, which sucks if you don’t want
to use it
• It’s written in PHP, which is a problematic language

16. DJANGO
PROS:
• Robust, secure, extraordinarily clear low-level framework geared
towards custom builds
• Tools & mindset to tailor solutions to clients’ needs quickly (i.e. not
working around another’s pre-conceived notion)
• Performance!
• We really, really like it, and have a resident expert
CONS:
• Built on a more exacting language, fewer developers available
• Prerequisite knowledge to set up working site (no one-button install)
(yet)
• Requires less common server set-up than, say, PHP
• It is not a full-fledged CMS

17. WHAT MATTERS TO YOU

18. TOOL BOX

19. TOOL BOX: LANGUAGES
INTRODUCTION
Magnetic Creative is primarily a
LAMP Stack (Linux, Apache,
MySQL, PHP/Python) Agency.
We all have a background in PHP,
but have moved towards Python due
to its heightened security, rapid
deployment tools, and its amazing
quality as a programming language.

20. THANK YOU