For example, application support does not address a security alert for PHP or Apache. A security flaw in MySQL would not be addressed with support for your open-source CMS application. Any serious use of open-source CMS should be accompanied by support that ensures that your open-source infrastructure is business ready. Such complete and comprehensive support for open source is relatively new, but it is available and it’s a trend that’s growing rapidly. This means that proprietary CMS no longer holds an advantage in this regard.

Most corporate users of enterprise applications such as CMS have been resigned to vendor lock-in for years. It was the only way to maximize ROI because switching costs are enormous.

Not so with open source. When you have the source code and can modify it to work with any set of application and infrastructure components the barrier to changing applications is much lower. For example, you can maintain all of your data in a MySQL database and if you want to switch from one open-source application to another for CMS, you can easily do so.

Open-source CMS captures the feedback of thousands of the world’s best developers— leading to more frequent improvements. Open-source developers tend to focus on advancing the most popular and innovative ideas, ideas that deliver real value to end users. And many improvements come directly from end users and service providers that use or support the CMS solution on a daily basis. This results in features that provide productivity enhancements, boost ease-of-use, and enable richer functionality.

Today’s best-in-class, open-source CMS can be easily installed, configured, and updated. It is now possible to install and configure an open-source CMS solution, and its required infrastructure components, with a single scripted installation. Application and infrastructure components can also be updated through a unified update service.

In the past, there were legitimate concerns about the business readiness of open-source CMS solutions. But today, the open-source development environment is more mature and there are VARs and SIs with substantial open-source skills who can offer customization, interoperability testing, and professional support. Consequently, for many organizations, open-source CMS can deliver all of the functionality of a proprietary CMS solution with greater flexibility and at a fraction of the cost. It pays to get the facts.