Day Software, New CRX Releases, CRX One, CRX Developer

Day Software released three new editions of CRX, Day’s famed JSR-170-compliant Java Content Repository (JCR). These new goodies will make some developers and CIOs salivate -- especially those looking for leaner content infrastructure solutions based on Day’s commercial implementation of Apache Jackrabbit and Apache Sling.

In a nutshell, developers get free access to the CRX; and enterprises can get the CRX cheaply, on the pay-as-you-go model. Is that all? Not really. The impact on the entire Enterprise and Web Content Management industries may be a lot larger.

What’s CRX Again?

Day’s Web CMS product is built on top of CRX. The CRX is an industrial-strength content repository that connects a wide range of existing data resources with web 2.0 applications (like blogging, wikis, search, tagging, etc.)

CRX is based on the implementation of Apache Jackrabbit and Apache Sling. It provides the infrastructure to access information across the silos that exist in most enterprises. CRX can be integrated through connectors with other content management systems like EMC Documentum, FileNet, MOSS, etc.

Day’s New CRX Editions at a Glance

You need enterprise-level web app capabilities, but you don’t feel like spending much money on a content infrastructure platform. Proceed and choose from the following:

CRX One

CRX One is a new version of CRX licensed for one Web application. It is available for download at day.com. An annual subscription license fee is a flat fee of US$18,500 per server per year. The number of CPUs is not counted. Good thing about this approach is that you can either drop it at any point, or upgrade to the next level.

CRX for Enterprises

CRX Enterprise is designed for use in multiple Web applications. CRX Enterprise is targeted for IT departments looking to consolidate disparate enterprise content repositories under a single, shared cluster of CRX.
 
The benefit to using CRX Enterprise is that you can upgrade to it from CRX One and host multiple applications without installing or managing new software. CRX Enterprise is offered under a perpetual license model and starts at US$ 50,000 per server instance.

Free CRX for Developers

For the first time in history, Day Software is offering developers its CRX software product for free to Apache Jackrabbit and Apache Sling developers. Think cloud-ready CRX content infrastructure that allows you to bring your fancy web application dreams to reality.
 
Think easier and cheaper adoption of an enterprise-level Web CMS platform and flexibility to use it any way you want to slice it. You don’t even need to download Apache Rabbit or Apache Sling, as all the elements are nicely packaged for you in a single .jar file. Break free from compiling and configing; and enjoy a custom admin console and exposed personalization, tagging, workflow and other CQ5 functionality.
 
CRX Developer is a limited license version of CRX available for download at Day’s Web site. Web developers can use CRX Developer at no cost under an annual renewal license for building and testing new CRX-based content applications.

What’s In the CRX for You?

Day’s latest CRX releases have the potential to increase the speed of web development, while decreasing IT costs (a very alluring proposition in this era of tiny IT budgets). New CRX editions give the almost-like-open-source opportunity to break away from code lock-in found in so many proprietary platforms of commercial WCM and ECM vendors. Built on the foundation of the core Apache Jackrabbit and Apache Sling projects, CRX offers:

  • Scalable, cloud-ready architecture
CRX eliminates costs associated with implementing a scalable, 24x7 environment for hosting Web applications with out-of-the-box clustering setup, point-and-click ease for adding and removing nodes in a cluster, and easy deployment into a hosted computing cloud such as Amazon EC2/S3.
  • Virtual repository consolidation
Day CRX enables developers to build content applications using a standardized application program interface (API) based on the JSR-170 standard, leveraging content resources from any number of legacy enterprise content management (ECM) repositories, including Microsoft SharePoint or EMC Documentum.
  • Rapid application development
Day CRX provides developers with a point-and-click GUI for managing CRX, including hot backups and clustering, along with simple JavaScript and ActionScript interfaces for developing content applications against the JCR API.

CMS by the Slice Model

Without getting too deep into terminology, ECM and WCM vendors have different names for this model: subscription model, or "by-the-slice," or as-you-go licensing model. Day is not the first vendor to explore the subscription-based licensing model.

Alfresco has a subscription-based model. The yearly subscription is based on the number of CPUs and starts at US$ 10, 000. Coincidentally, Day’s CMO Kevin Cochrane just left the Alfresco building not so long ago. Surely, a pure coincidence, but couldn’t help but mention that.

Ingeniux -- a traditional, Microsoft-oriented commercial Web CMS vendor -- started selling its Ingeniux CMS “by the slice” last year starting at around US$ 1,900 per month. Ingeniux though sells it not as a subscription, but as a SaaS model.

Speaking of SaaS…

CMS by the Slice Model vs. SaaS CMS

Slicing the CMS into accessible chunks also means less upfront expenses for organizations looking to avoid the trendy SaaS CMS (despite its tremendous popularity).

SpringCM, Clickability, OmniUpdate and the likes will have to work so much harder now that traditional Web CMS vendors are starting to offer their core functionality in smaller, more easily digestible slices. There is hardly a better way to attract customers with this initial proposal and retain them long-term as their content management and web application needs grow.

CMS by the Slice Model vs. Open Source CMS

With new offerings from Day, one would imagine that some open source (as well as hybrid open source) vendors in the Java space may think about taking advantage of Day’s platform to beef up their own products.

Let’s think about Hippo CMS, for example. Very recently, Hippo CMS 7.0 was released. The product’s architecture is Apache-based. Day’s new CRX offerings seem like a perfect marriage scenario to complement Hippo.

Is CQ5 in Danger?

Customers are looking for cheaper solutions, and vendors are doing their best to come up with appropriate offerings. While this is, certainly, very exciting news for Day, we can’t help but wonder whether the new CRX editions will put Day’s core offering -- CQ5 Web CMS -- in danger?

One of the benefits of Day’s new CRX releases is that it will aid in building the community around Apache Sling. Logically, Day’s CRX editions and core CQ5 product are speaking to different audiences (plus, the CRX editions may bring additional revenue). But if the only benefit of paying the big bucks for the full-blown CQ5 is its sexy drag&drop, AJAX-y interface -- is it really worth it? In other words, is this new venture going to water down and devalue the main product, or open it up and strengthen it?