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Research Publication Date: 26 September 2006
ID Number: G00138949
Migration Road Map for Microsoft Web Content Management Lou Latham, James Lundy, Mark R. Gilbert
Microsoft's future Web content management offering is based on its new SharePoint technologies. This will have huge implications for the WCM strategies of customers of existing Microsoft content management systems.
© 2006 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction and distribution of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Although Gartner's research may discuss legal issues related to the information technology business, Gartner does not provide legal advice or services and its research should not be construed or used as such. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.
ANALYSIS Microsoft's evolving position in the enterprise content management (ECM) market often confuses clients. To date, several different Microsoft products have met the need for what we call basic content services (BCS) — a simple, low-cost content management solution (see Note 1). But now, the company is consolidating its content management offerings onto an integrated twoproduct platform known as "SharePoint Products and Technologies," which, together, will provide a broader range of content functionality. Relatively lower pricing and dominance on the desktop can make Microsoft a long-term contender in this market — if the new architecture fulfills its promise under production workloads. But, given the potential complexity of the migration, Microsoft probably can't make this easy for all its existing customers. Planning will be easier and more straightforward if you know the answers to the following key questions.
Which Microsoft products handle Web content management? The existing Web publishing product is Microsoft Content Management Server (MCMS) 2002, based on technology that the company gained in 2001 thorough the NCompass Labs acquisition. The new piece of Microsoft's content-management solution will come in the 2007 release of SharePoint. The basic content management functions are in Windows SharePoint Services (WSS), a free component of Windows Server 2003. WSS allows users to quickly create document repositories and team collaboration spaces. The component that adds Web content management (WCM) capabilities is an additional licensed application that will run on top of WSS. In the upcoming 2007 Office system, Microsoft will update WSS 2003 (WSS 2.0) to WSS 2007 (WSS 3.0). It will also combine the functions in SharePoint Server (SPS) 2003 and MCMS into a new application called Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007, which replaces SPS 2003. In addition to WCM and upgrades of all SPS features, MOSS 2007 can integrate WSS sites or federate them into a portal. It also provides several other content functions, including federated search and basic records management, and workflow capabilities. Since MOSS 2007 is also a development platform with several associated tools, Microsoft expects its partners and customers to build an expanding library of enhancements to these functions over time.
How strong are these offerings? Gartner has positioned Microsoft as a niche player in the overall ECM market (see "Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Content Management, 2005"). This assessment takes into account the capabilities of the current versions of both SharePoint products and MCMS. MCMS itself offers solid WCM, but lacks the other functions that characterize ECM. More importantly, Microsoft last updated MCMS in 2002, and it has lagged in an evolving market. Since 2003, Microsoft has provided a bridge between MCMS and its SharePoint products. This has been a valuable feature for users that combine document collaboration with WCM or publish content from SharePoint Store. However, until now, the two have had different code bases and architectures. The new release not only brings many content management functions onto one platform, but also positions them within a single technical framework of applications, middleware and Windows services designed to combine content, collaboration and portal functions.
What are Microsoft's plans for WCM? Microsoft will discontinue MCMS and migrate its WCM features to MOSS 2007. MOSS 2007 is undergoing late-stage beta testing and is scheduled for release in early 2007. In addition to a superset of the WCM functionality now in MCMS, MOSS will include records management and workflow tools — along with updates to the site management and other portal functions currently
Publication Date: 26 September 2006/ID Number: G00138949 © 2006 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2 of 5
in SPS — and an expanded range of extensions to the document-management and search tools in WSS (see "Q&A: Microsoft's Content Management Software and Strategy"). The cost and complexity of making the change will be roughly proportional to the amount of custom or application code that was developed for MCMS. Installations that are more or less "out of the box" will be fairly easy to port, although templates, workflow and deployment routines will need to be rebuilt. In some cases, the new functions are more complete and robust, and less work is required than for MCMS. Deployment, for example, now relies on a new mechanism of "paths" and "jobs." A path links a source (such as a specific repository) and a destination, while the jobs define the content to be deployed. Many jobs can be submitted to a given path, and jobs can be generated and scheduled programmatically. Similarly, a job can be submitted to multiple paths to support multisite deployments. Once the paths are defined, creating new jobs and scheduling or triggering deployments is much quicker and easier than it was with MCMS. However, heavily customized MCMS installations, or applications developed on top of MCMS, will require the MCMS code to be extensively rewritten, using the new Visual Studio.NET development tools and the ASP.NET scripting language. While Microsoft provides automated tools for basic processes like migrating the content and metadata and rerendering the pages, advanced functions must be recreated by hand.
What should clients do about Microsoft's WCM offering? First, do not invest in MCMS 2002 if you don't already use it. The product will be available for sale through to the end of 2006, but it is obsolescent. If you already use MCMS, plan to migrate your WCM solution to MOSS 2007 (or another product) by 2008, when support for MCMS 2002 will end. Even if you choose to stay with Microsoft, the transition can be more complex, expensive and time-consuming than a routine upgrade, so budget as though you were moving to another vendor. MCMS users should take advantage of the growing assortment of migration aids provided by Microsoft and its partners (see Note 2). Since the migration effort is proportional to the amount of application code that has been layered on MCMS, suspend MCMS development projects until you run the company's assessment tool and evaluate what may have to be done in MOSS 2007. Those who have installed and used the ASP.NET 2.0 upgrade will have an easier time making the migration. Obviously, given the prospect of a significant upgrade effort, staying with Microsoft is not the only option. First, consider how your content management needs will evolve over the next few years. Moving WCM into MOSS 2007 will make sense for companies that need BCM linked to documents generated in a Microsoft environment, or for those with an extensive SharePoint collaboration infrastructure and a commitment to the .NET architecture. It allows architects to integrate a broad range of content and collaboration functions in a comprehensive framework closely tied to the standard desktop productivity tools that most companies use. Other vendors that offer .NET WCM products include Ektron, Sitecore and other small contenders. These can provide basic Web content functions and can integrate with SharePoint stores as content sources. For more extensive functions, the RedDot division of Hummingbird offers a cross-platform solution, which can scale to the enterprise level, and manage documents and information for compliance or support vertical applications and processes. However, RedDot has not yet completed the .NET transition for its core Windows code base and, if successfully completed, the recently announced acquisition of Hummingbird by Open Text could change the Hummingbird/RedDot road map (see "Open Text/Hummingbird Deal May Cause Concern Among Customers").
Publication Date: 26 September 2006/ID Number: G00138949 © 2006 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 3 of 5
Before considering other vendors, evaluate the entire 2007 Office system architecture. The 2007 release is a major upgrade that offers a much more substantial server-side infrastructure than previous versions of Office. This includes document management and collaboration functions in WSS, a broad range of Web site management, content management and portal functions in MOSS 2007, and a new Windows Workflow Foundation. However, like any major upgrade, we recommend a cautious approach until production feedback validates the promises. This means most users should expect to deploy the new software starting in mid-2007 or later, after the first service pack is released, rather than at the earliest opportunity.
RECOMMENDED READING "New Microsoft Office System Aims for ECM, and Should Succeed as BCS" "What Constitutes Enterprise Content Management?" "How Well Does Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Support Enterprise Content Management?" "Open Text/Hummingbird Deal May Cause Concern Among Customers" "SharePoint Portal Server 2003: Good News, Bad News"
Note 1 Basic Content Services BCS provides document library services with complementary ad hoc imaging, basic Web publishing, document collaboration and document routing as its core functionality. The key differences between BCS and enterprise content management (ECM) are cost and ease of deployment. BCS will serve the content management needs of knowledge workers who don't deal with mission-critical documents managed by more functionally rich ECM systems.
Note 2 Microsoft Migration Aids for Content Management Systems Microsoft has a site on its developer network devoted to CMS migration assistance. In addition to a downloadable application (the Microsoft CMS Assessment Tool, now in beta 2 testing) that analyzes existing CMS installations for migration "pain" points, it has a growing collection of documents, including: •
Mapping MCMS 2002 APIs to SharePoint Server 2007
•
Planning MCMS 2002 Application Migration to SharePoint Server 2007
•
SharePoint Server 2007 for MCMS 2002 Developers
•
Designing MCMS 2002 Solutions for Reusability
This research is part of a set of related research pieces. See "The 2007 Microsoft Office System: Improvements and Complexities" for an overview.
Publication Date: 26 September 2006/ID Number: G00138949 © 2006 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 4 of 5
REGIONAL HEADQUARTERS Corporate Headquarters 56 Top Gallant Road Stamford, CT 06902-7700 U.S.A. +1 203 964 0096 European Headquarters Tamesis The Glanty Egham Surrey, TW20 9AW UNITED KINGDOM +44 1784 431611 Asia/Pacific Headquarters Gartner Australasia Pty. Ltd. Level 9, 141 Walker Street North Sydney New South Wales 2060 AUSTRALIA +61 2 9459 4600 Japan Headquarters Gartner Japan Ltd. Aobadai Hills, 6F 7-7, Aobadai, 4-chome Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-0042 JAPAN +81 3 3481 3670 Latin America Headquarters Gartner do Brazil Av. das Nações Unidas, 12551 9° andar—World Trade Center 04578-903—São Paulo SP BRAZIL +55 11 3443 1509
Publication Date: 26 September 2006/ID Number: G00138949 © 2006 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 5 of 5
ID Number: G00138949
Migration Road Map for Microsoft Web Content Management Lou Latham, James Lundy, Mark R. Gilbert
Microsoft's future Web content management offering is based on its new SharePoint technologies. This will have huge implications for the WCM strategies of customers of existing Microsoft content management systems.
© 2006 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction and distribution of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Although Gartner's research may discuss legal issues related to the information technology business, Gartner does not provide legal advice or services and its research should not be construed or used as such. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.
ANALYSIS Microsoft's evolving position in the enterprise content management (ECM) market often confuses clients. To date, several different Microsoft products have met the need for what we call basic content services (BCS) — a simple, low-cost content management solution (see Note 1). But now, the company is consolidating its content management offerings onto an integrated twoproduct platform known as "SharePoint Products and Technologies," which, together, will provide a broader range of content functionality. Relatively lower pricing and dominance on the desktop can make Microsoft a long-term contender in this market — if the new architecture fulfills its promise under production workloads. But, given the potential complexity of the migration, Microsoft probably can't make this easy for all its existing customers. Planning will be easier and more straightforward if you know the answers to the following key questions.
Which Microsoft products handle Web content management? The existing Web publishing product is Microsoft Content Management Server (MCMS) 2002, based on technology that the company gained in 2001 thorough the NCompass Labs acquisition. The new piece of Microsoft's content-management solution will come in the 2007 release of SharePoint. The basic content management functions are in Windows SharePoint Services (WSS), a free component of Windows Server 2003. WSS allows users to quickly create document repositories and team collaboration spaces. The component that adds Web content management (WCM) capabilities is an additional licensed application that will run on top of WSS. In the upcoming 2007 Office system, Microsoft will update WSS 2003 (WSS 2.0) to WSS 2007 (WSS 3.0). It will also combine the functions in SharePoint Server (SPS) 2003 and MCMS into a new application called Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007, which replaces SPS 2003. In addition to WCM and upgrades of all SPS features, MOSS 2007 can integrate WSS sites or federate them into a portal. It also provides several other content functions, including federated search and basic records management, and workflow capabilities. Since MOSS 2007 is also a development platform with several associated tools, Microsoft expects its partners and customers to build an expanding library of enhancements to these functions over time.
How strong are these offerings? Gartner has positioned Microsoft as a niche player in the overall ECM market (see "Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Content Management, 2005"). This assessment takes into account the capabilities of the current versions of both SharePoint products and MCMS. MCMS itself offers solid WCM, but lacks the other functions that characterize ECM. More importantly, Microsoft last updated MCMS in 2002, and it has lagged in an evolving market. Since 2003, Microsoft has provided a bridge between MCMS and its SharePoint products. This has been a valuable feature for users that combine document collaboration with WCM or publish content from SharePoint Store. However, until now, the two have had different code bases and architectures. The new release not only brings many content management functions onto one platform, but also positions them within a single technical framework of applications, middleware and Windows services designed to combine content, collaboration and portal functions.
What are Microsoft's plans for WCM? Microsoft will discontinue MCMS and migrate its WCM features to MOSS 2007. MOSS 2007 is undergoing late-stage beta testing and is scheduled for release in early 2007. In addition to a superset of the WCM functionality now in MCMS, MOSS will include records management and workflow tools — along with updates to the site management and other portal functions currently
Publication Date: 26 September 2006/ID Number: G00138949 © 2006 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2 of 5
in SPS — and an expanded range of extensions to the document-management and search tools in WSS (see "Q&A: Microsoft's Content Management Software and Strategy"). The cost and complexity of making the change will be roughly proportional to the amount of custom or application code that was developed for MCMS. Installations that are more or less "out of the box" will be fairly easy to port, although templates, workflow and deployment routines will need to be rebuilt. In some cases, the new functions are more complete and robust, and less work is required than for MCMS. Deployment, for example, now relies on a new mechanism of "paths" and "jobs." A path links a source (such as a specific repository) and a destination, while the jobs define the content to be deployed. Many jobs can be submitted to a given path, and jobs can be generated and scheduled programmatically. Similarly, a job can be submitted to multiple paths to support multisite deployments. Once the paths are defined, creating new jobs and scheduling or triggering deployments is much quicker and easier than it was with MCMS. However, heavily customized MCMS installations, or applications developed on top of MCMS, will require the MCMS code to be extensively rewritten, using the new Visual Studio.NET development tools and the ASP.NET scripting language. While Microsoft provides automated tools for basic processes like migrating the content and metadata and rerendering the pages, advanced functions must be recreated by hand.
What should clients do about Microsoft's WCM offering? First, do not invest in MCMS 2002 if you don't already use it. The product will be available for sale through to the end of 2006, but it is obsolescent. If you already use MCMS, plan to migrate your WCM solution to MOSS 2007 (or another product) by 2008, when support for MCMS 2002 will end. Even if you choose to stay with Microsoft, the transition can be more complex, expensive and time-consuming than a routine upgrade, so budget as though you were moving to another vendor. MCMS users should take advantage of the growing assortment of migration aids provided by Microsoft and its partners (see Note 2). Since the migration effort is proportional to the amount of application code that has been layered on MCMS, suspend MCMS development projects until you run the company's assessment tool and evaluate what may have to be done in MOSS 2007. Those who have installed and used the ASP.NET 2.0 upgrade will have an easier time making the migration. Obviously, given the prospect of a significant upgrade effort, staying with Microsoft is not the only option. First, consider how your content management needs will evolve over the next few years. Moving WCM into MOSS 2007 will make sense for companies that need BCM linked to documents generated in a Microsoft environment, or for those with an extensive SharePoint collaboration infrastructure and a commitment to the .NET architecture. It allows architects to integrate a broad range of content and collaboration functions in a comprehensive framework closely tied to the standard desktop productivity tools that most companies use. Other vendors that offer .NET WCM products include Ektron, Sitecore and other small contenders. These can provide basic Web content functions and can integrate with SharePoint stores as content sources. For more extensive functions, the RedDot division of Hummingbird offers a cross-platform solution, which can scale to the enterprise level, and manage documents and information for compliance or support vertical applications and processes. However, RedDot has not yet completed the .NET transition for its core Windows code base and, if successfully completed, the recently announced acquisition of Hummingbird by Open Text could change the Hummingbird/RedDot road map (see "Open Text/Hummingbird Deal May Cause Concern Among Customers").
Publication Date: 26 September 2006/ID Number: G00138949 © 2006 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 3 of 5
Before considering other vendors, evaluate the entire 2007 Office system architecture. The 2007 release is a major upgrade that offers a much more substantial server-side infrastructure than previous versions of Office. This includes document management and collaboration functions in WSS, a broad range of Web site management, content management and portal functions in MOSS 2007, and a new Windows Workflow Foundation. However, like any major upgrade, we recommend a cautious approach until production feedback validates the promises. This means most users should expect to deploy the new software starting in mid-2007 or later, after the first service pack is released, rather than at the earliest opportunity.
RECOMMENDED READING "New Microsoft Office System Aims for ECM, and Should Succeed as BCS" "What Constitutes Enterprise Content Management?" "How Well Does Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Support Enterprise Content Management?" "Open Text/Hummingbird Deal May Cause Concern Among Customers" "SharePoint Portal Server 2003: Good News, Bad News"
Note 1 Basic Content Services BCS provides document library services with complementary ad hoc imaging, basic Web publishing, document collaboration and document routing as its core functionality. The key differences between BCS and enterprise content management (ECM) are cost and ease of deployment. BCS will serve the content management needs of knowledge workers who don't deal with mission-critical documents managed by more functionally rich ECM systems.
Note 2 Microsoft Migration Aids for Content Management Systems Microsoft has a site on its developer network devoted to CMS migration assistance. In addition to a downloadable application (the Microsoft CMS Assessment Tool, now in beta 2 testing) that analyzes existing CMS installations for migration "pain" points, it has a growing collection of documents, including: •
Mapping MCMS 2002 APIs to SharePoint Server 2007
•
Planning MCMS 2002 Application Migration to SharePoint Server 2007
•
SharePoint Server 2007 for MCMS 2002 Developers
•
Designing MCMS 2002 Solutions for Reusability
This research is part of a set of related research pieces. See "The 2007 Microsoft Office System: Improvements and Complexities" for an overview.
Publication Date: 26 September 2006/ID Number: G00138949 © 2006 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 4 of 5
REGIONAL HEADQUARTERS Corporate Headquarters 56 Top Gallant Road Stamford, CT 06902-7700 U.S.A. +1 203 964 0096 European Headquarters Tamesis The Glanty Egham Surrey, TW20 9AW UNITED KINGDOM +44 1784 431611 Asia/Pacific Headquarters Gartner Australasia Pty. Ltd. Level 9, 141 Walker Street North Sydney New South Wales 2060 AUSTRALIA +61 2 9459 4600 Japan Headquarters Gartner Japan Ltd. Aobadai Hills, 6F 7-7, Aobadai, 4-chome Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-0042 JAPAN +81 3 3481 3670 Latin America Headquarters Gartner do Brazil Av. das Nações Unidas, 12551 9° andar—World Trade Center 04578-903—São Paulo SP BRAZIL +55 11 3443 1509
Publication Date: 26 September 2006/ID Number: G00138949 © 2006 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 5 of 5
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