BOSTON and LONDON, Feb. 21, 2012 -- The cloud-based vendor model has failed to pervade the Web Content & Experience Management (WCXM) marketplace, while enterprise customers experimenting with cloud-based deployments of on-premise WCXM solutions also face technical and licensing challenges, according to a new marketplace overview released today by independent evaluation firm, The Real Story Group.

These findings come from Real Story Group's 2012 Web Content & Experience Management Systems Market Analysis, which provides a snapshot of vendor and technology risk profiles for 35 major WCXM suppliers from around the globe.

The Real Story Group found that Software-as-a-Service vendors have failed to gain the significant market share that many had predicted over the past decade:

• Longtime player Clickability was sold last year to Limelight Networks for less than its previous venture investment intake
• CrownPeak has lost momentum amid struggles to modernize its platform 
• OmniUpdate has continued to grow slowly, but primarily within its core, higher-education customer base
• None of the major North American SaaS WCXM vendors have managed to gain a foothold in other regions

"SaaS vendors can provide useful, out-of-the-box solutions," notes RSG analyst, Irina Guseva. "But as WCXM requirements get more sophisticated, enterprise customers are increasingly seeking extensible platforms with integration hooks into other systems."

Customers attempting to deploy on-premise software in the cloud are also facing challenges.  Most off-the-shelf (COTS) web content and experience management tools are not readily “cloudable,” or must be installed in a specific cloud environment, like Azure.  "In some cases, those COTS tools cannot take advantage of certain key cloud benefits, like elasticity and rapid provisioning of new instances," said RSG analyst Apoorv Durga. "Also, most COTS vendors have not transitioned server-based licensing models to more cloud-friendly fee structures for WCXM," Durga adds.

The Real Story Group has observed that more enterprises are turning to simple, managed hosting solutions for WCXM deployments.  "Basic, managed hosting is particularly attractive for open source WCXM implementations," says RSG analyst Matt Mullen, "since installing frequent security patches becomes someone else's headache."