| | February 20169CIOReviewfor app development. The advantage here is that both web and mobile applications will draw content from the same API, reducing redundancy across the organization. Back to the FrontThe Headless CMS owes credit for its rise in part to the evolution of the browser. During the past few years, browsers have become more robust. Features that used to require dynamic code running on a server can now be moved directly to the client. The traditional CMS, with its templates and component-level constraints, tends to limit what front-end developers can do, especially when it comes to taking advantage of open source libraries. With a headless CMS, developers can decide on the programming language, design, and features of their project much more freely.Initially, this client-side approach will require an organization to rely on a skilled front-end team; while developers are comfortable editing pages in Markdown and submitting them to Github, content authors will find this process unwieldy at best. However, as the site matures, content editors can start to leverage reusable components and a lightweight tool to add content and pages easily. Most static CMS tools (such as Contentful) provide simple WYSIWYG content editing. The static futureAs websites move away from the monolithic CMS, they are also embracing the performance & workflow improvements of the statically generated site. The traditional CMS is dynamic. Every client request goes back to the database, requiring highly efficient queries and caching strategies. Though caching can be effective for dynamic sites, statically-generated sites allow for a clean split between static and dynamic content, which makes it easier to take advantage of the performance improvement provided by a CDN. Performance is even more important for mobile devices, where sites are expected to perform well on weaker cellular connections. The dynamic CMS is also much more vulnerable to attack. Since Wordpress powers 23 percent of the web, it is unsettling to realize that 70 percent of Wordpress instances are vulnerable to attack. A few months ago, over 12 million Drupal sites needed an emergency patch to account for vulnerability. Though statistics for proprietary enterprise CMSs are hard to come by, there is much anecdotal evidence of vulnerabilities.Developer happiness and ease also comes into play with static site generators (such as Jekyll), since they are easier to use and more accessible, making it easier to launch sections of a site without needing to rebuild an entire database. In a test-and-learn environment, this sort of convenience is critical. Born in the cloudMany traditional CMSs are now "cloud-ready". However, porting a software product to the cloud doesn't mean that it can take full advantage of the efficiencies that the cloud brings. A solution that is architected for the cloud can best leverage its advantages. The headless CMS delivers content via an API, and statically generated sites are immediately ready to take advantage of CDNs like Akamai. Through use of a hosted Content API (like Contentful), an organization's developer team no longer needs to worry about maintenance and upgrade costs. End of an EraThere was a time when a monolithic CMS was really the only option for the challenge of managing the jungle of pages, departments, approval workflows, and conflicting goals for a large website. The headless CMS and static site isn't going to magically solve the complexity, but it can certainly help empower developers, speed internal processes and improve site performance. The traditional CMS, with its templates and component-level constraints, tends to limit what front-end developers can do, especially when it comes to taking advantage of open source librariesSandeep Sood
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