Moving to the Right in the 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms: A Visionary Again!

This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Nuxeo.

It’s hard to believe it’s that time of year again. Yes, there’s a new chill in the air, Halloween is upon us, and Thanksgiving (for those of us in the US) is soon to follow. But it’s also time for Gartner’s annual Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platform, the latest version of which was released on October 25.

Yes, every year, software vendors (like Nuxeo) go through an extensive process to have their products reviewed by Gartner, and then wait anxiously for the results-hoping to be recognized as a leader, visionary, challenger, or niche vendor.

I am very pleased to share with you that Nuxeo has again been named a Visionary in the 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms. What is particularly pleasing to me is that we have moved even further to the right in this year’s report, in terms of our “completeness of vision” – not bad for a company that only made its debut in last year’s report!

So, let’s talk a little bit about Gartner’s Magic Quadrant and how Nuxeo faired in this year’s analysis. But, if you just want to read the report for yourself, you can get complimentary access to it from our website.

What is a Content Services Platform?

Read our blog “What is a Content Services Platform“ to learn our definition.

In a 2017 blog post by Michael Woodbridge, Gartner boldly declared that, “ECM (Enterprise Content Management) is now dead” and announced the birth of Content Services and the Content Services Platform. Today, Gartner defines Content Services Platforms as:

A set of services and microservices, embodied as an integrated product suite and applications that share common APIs and repositories, to exploit diverse content types and to serve multiple constituencies and numerous use cases across an organization.

In other words, it’s a platform that embodies a set of APIs and core services for working with diverse types of content. And, because it is a platform, it can be used to address any number of use cases across the enterprise.

What are the Key Elements of a Content Services Platform?

In their report, Gartner details fifteen critical capabilities of a Content Services Platform. They range from administration and content security, to metadata and classification, and even include collaboration, productivity and content management workflows and process.

However, I thought I would add a few additional elements of what we believe makes a successful Content Services Platform:

• A cloud-native architecture. As Gartner notes, Content Services Platforms can be deployed anywhere: in the cloud, on premises or even in hybrid environments. But only a cloud-native architecture will scale efficiently and perform effortlessly on commodity hardware (potentially saving you millions of dollars). And only a cloud-native architecture is modular enough to be truly “future proof.” Learn more about our cloud-native architecture.
• Support for diverse content types. Modern content is no longer made up of just scanned images and electronic documents. High-resolution images, video, and even 3D and VR content are becoming increasingly critical to your business. A modern Content Services Platform supports all content types, not just documents.
• A NoSQL-based metadata model. Storing content securely is relatively easy. Effectively managing content across any number of different use cases is really hard. Successful Content Services Platforms marry content and data and only a NoSQL-based solution, like Nuxeo, can scale to meet the needs of even the largest enterprises and give you the flexibility you need to be successful with your content strategy over the long term.
• An API-first design. In a modern, connected world, no platform exists in isolation. And no platform can offer pre-built connectors for every application. Therefore, successful Content Services Platforms employ an API-first design to ensure that all of the capabilities of the platform are first made available through the API. A vendor’s content apps should never leave its platform behind.
• A low-code approach for application development. A platform is only as good as the apps you can build on top of it. Successful solutions have adopted a low-code innovation paradigm, allowing developers to quickly build compelling content apps for the business.
• And true, federated access to content. And, finally, content exists across the enterprise. Trying to corral it into one repository is a useless and expensive exercise. Instead, at Nuxeo, we advocate a more intelligent approach that allows our customers to “connect and consolidate” content across multiple repositories and enables them to gradually, over time, decommission outmoded apps and platforms.

In my next post related to our inclusion in the 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms, I’ll touch on why content services must be an integral component for any modern digital business.