Free and Lucid Gaze At Optimizing Apache Lucene-Based Apps

Lucid Imagination continues to show its (mainly dollar-amount-driven) dedication to open source Apache Lucene and Solr search technologies. Recently, the company released a nifty tool called LucidGaze for Lucene.

LucidGaze is a monitoring tool for installations using the Java Lucene search library. It supports Apache Lucene version 2.4.1 and later. Aside from helping developers optimize their Lucene-based applications, the other piece of good news is that LucidGaze is free.

The product works by reverse-engineering characteristics of the Lucene application and providing a framework for developers to improve application management.

Using LucidGaze, developers can harvest data (e.g., the rate of queries, query speed, text analysis times, memory consumption, changes to index structure, etc.), analyze the performance and optimize their search apps.

More on LucidGaze features on CMSWire.

Amazon Debuts With (More Secure?) Virtual Private Cloud

Ever thought that the cloud is not secure enough for your organization to even consider adopting it? You may want to give that thought another swirl. And the reason for that is the new Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).

Albeit in limited beta, the offering aims to provide the best of the both worlds by securely bridging your existing IT infrastructure and the AWS cloud-based resources in hybrid architectures.

In essence, Virtual Private Cloud works just as a regular AWS public cloud, but with isolation and additional encryption.

Is this the ultimate solution for security concerns? Hardly.

Can it support regulatory compliance requirements in the cloud? The short answer is “no.” But, hey, it’s not a bad start.

More on CMSWire: Amazon Debuts With Virtual Private Clouds

Sitecore Tries to Stay Competitive With Updated Multisite Management Tool Foundry

Being able to effectively manage multiple websites under the umbrella of a single Web Content Management System (CMS) is one of the most must-have requirements when selecting a CMS vendor.

Sitecore, the maker of a .NET-based Web CMS, knows that fact very well and keeps refining its multisite management tool called Foundry, which just saw the 3.0 release.

New in Foundry 3.0

Sitecore says that in Foundry 3.0 users will see new and advanced .NET security controls, enhanced HTML newsletter capabilities and Silverlight photo gallery support. All of those functions are designed to create and manage distributed websites, while maintaining centralized security and control.

In addition to support for Sitecore’s CMS 6.1., Foundry 3.0 made some improvement to usability in the areas of inline editing support.

Splashing in the Gulfstream CMS Waves

And some on the West Coast… With Sitecore entering the U.S. market in 2004 (and Canada later), among a wave of other Web CMS vendors, it was a good time to join the North American CMS goldmine picnic, but now is not a good time to lag behind.

From what was seen in earlier versions of Foundry, there’s still a lot that can be done to improve this piece of the product in order to stay competitive in the cut-throat market.

More on CMSWire

Open Text Talks 2009 Financials, Vignette’s Fate

Enterprise CMS provider Open Text announced unaudited financial results for Q4 and FY2009.

Despite the current economic climate, OTEX reports achieving bottom line target, although net income for fiscal year 2009, and license revenue and operating cash flow in the fourth quarter have dipped.

Conversations on Vignette’s fate and product integration strategies are ongoing.

Acquisitions always seem to be part of any conversation around Open Text. During Q4, the company acquired digital media, 3D applications makers Vizible for an undisclosed sum to expand its portfolio of digital media applications. There are no details yet as to what Open Text plans to really do with the eye candy that Vizible is.

Finalized in July of this year, the acquisition of Web CMS vendor Vignette and its positioning in Open Text is starting to look less nebulous.

John Shackleton, president and CEO of Open Text, said, “We are pleased with how the acquisition is progressing and to date the integration is tracking to plan.” While also adding “I am disappointed that we were slightly off on our Q4 revenue targets, mainly due to the WCM delays where customers were waiting to see our new WCM strategy with the announcement of the Vignette acquisition.”

Vignette’s prior (not very promising) financial behavior and miscellaneous struggles are playing a role in Open Text’s balance sheet.

According to Open Text’s CFO Paul McFeeters, “As part of acquisition accounting, we will fair value the acquired deferred revenue for customer support contracts…  However, I expect the range of this adjustment to be between US$ 6 million and US $ 8 million for the first year of operations. While we will not break out the financial effect of the acquired Vignette business, I will remind you that they were operating at a breakeven margin. We expect this acquisition to be neutral to the operations in Q2, accretive in Q3, and on our operating model by the end of this fiscal year.”

In addition to that, Open Text plans to cut Vignette’s worldwide workforce (layoffs wouldn’t be for the first time) and “continue to rationalize facilities in both Open Text and Vignette. ” Open Text and Vignette restructuring charge will be approximately US$ 32 million to US$ 40 million. How many jobs is that?

It would be reasonable to expect that Vignette and former RedDot (now, Open Text Web Solutions) will be merging in some way or another. With  Vignette, most likely, taking the upper hand. The detailed roadmap and product integration strategies should be announced in October at the North American Content World Conference in Orlando, FL.

More on OTEX numbers on CMSWire

Day to Ignite CQ5 CMS Discussions in Europe and U.S.

Day’s customer? Evaluating Day CQ5 CMS? CMS geek generally curious about the present and the future of web content management? Check out Day’s customer summit that is scheduled to take place in Zürich (October 14-15, 2009) and Chicago (October 28-29, 2009).

Day’s plan for this event is, mainly, to share strategies and customer stories around CQ5 Web CMS that was released in November 2008. CQ5.2 that came out earlier this year included new DAM and Social Collaboration features.

There are several tracks planned at the summit, including business and technical. The business track is focused on CMS project objectives, CQ5 selection and criteria, and CQ5 business results. In the technical track, attendees will look into CMS project objectives and implementation plan, CQ5 deployment details, and lessons learned in best leveraging Day’s CQ5.

Very often, it’s best to get right into the vendor’s camp if you want to get more insight into what’s going on with the company and where it is going. While, as we reported, Day has had many good days lately, nothing beats a chance of being able to talk to the actual customer who had already put a check mark next to that line that says “CMS implementation.” Getting direct access to Day’s management and technical teams wouldn’t hurt either.

A bit of gazing into the crystal ball is also on the menu with one of Gartner’s analysts leading a discussion on where Day and the content management industry are headed in 2010.

Don’t miss:

• Unveiling of CRX 2.0: the JCR 2.0 (JSR-283) content repository
• Day’s 2010 roadmap

Cherry on top: Day’s CTO David Nüscheler will give a sneak peek of the upcoming CQ5.3. Now, that should be interesting.

Day’s customer? Evaluating Day CQ5 CMS? CMS geek generally curious about the present and future of web content management? Check out Day’s (news, site) customer summit that is scheduled to take place in Zurich (October 14-15, 2009) and Chicago (October 28-29, 2009).

Day’s plan for this event is, mainly, to share strategies and customer stories around CQ5 Web CMS that was released in November 2008. CQ5.2 CMS that we saw earlier this year included new DAM and Social Collaboration features. There are several tracks planned, including business and technical. The business track is focused on CMS project objectives, CQ5 selection and criteria, and CQ5 business results. In the technical track, attendees will look into CMS project objectives and implementation plan, CQ5 deployment details, and lessons learned in best leveraging Day’s CQ5.

Very often, it’s best to get into the vendor’s camp if you want to get more insight into what’s going on with the company and where it is going. While, as we reported, Day has seen many good days lately, nothing beats a chance of being able to talk to the actual customer who had already put a check mark next to that line that says “CMS implementation.” Getting direct access to Day’s management and technical teams wouldn’t hurt either.

A bit of gazing into the crystal ball is also on the menu with one of Gartner’s analysts leading a discussion on where Day and the content management industry are headed in 2010.

Cherry on top: Day’s CTO David Nuescheler will give a sneak peek into the upcoming CQ5.3.

EPiServer Keeps Spreading Its Wings Beyond the Nordic Homebase

Swedish Web CMS vendor EPiServer is increasing its European reach beyond the Scandinavian homebase. Recently, EPiServer signed 11 new implementation/reseller partnerships in the United Kingdom.

As you know, the MS .NET devout EPiServer works through resellers/partners only. And now, through more of them, including UK’s Byte Art, Charteris, Cimex Media, Corporate Document Services, IMGROUP, Kieon, Nucleus, Obergine, Ogilvy Action, The On Connection and STEEL. The majority of them are interactive/digital agencies specializing in website building and web content management.

Neal Perry, Country Manager of EPiServer UK & Ireland said: “Our partners include some of the largest and most well known agencies in Europe. They all know that we provide them with a straightforward way to create websites, which engage the visitor and are easy to manage.”

Good move, eh? For EPiServer’s growth, it is crucial to sign the right implementation partners, as much of the overall success in the CMS market depends on them. You might’ve noticed that it is not always easy to find skilled EPiServer integrators, especially outside of Sweden.

EPiServer says there are more than 2,500 customers worldwide using EPiServer CMS. A bit hard to believe, but the vendor also notes, “Two new commercial sites built using EPiServer CMS go live every 24 hours.”

The current count of EPiServer’s partner network is around 300 companies in 25 countries, including U.S., where EPiServer has recently opened its North American HQ office.