At the end of summer in the northern hemisphere (which hopefully was full of fun and adventures for you), I'll take you on a little surf through the waves of the recently released version 20.2 of our WCM vendor evaluation research. We have a new entrant to the "Upper-range Platform" vendor category: Sitecore.

The Danish vendor has joined the likes of Coremedia and SDL Tridion. I'll continue to closely watch Sitecore, as it's making attempts to move up the market. So should you, if you're considering Sitecore for a larger, enterprisey Web CMS deployment. I wouldn't say Sitecore has completely departed its former Mid-range Platform profile.  For example, unlike FatWire (now Oracle) or Adobe CQ, Sitecore doesn't have the same amount of experience with going beyond a 2-server setup.

For now, you should know that recently Sitecore has revamped its pricing model (think: more expensive), and is selling its CMS core separately from its DMS ("Digital Marketing System"). The latter is Sitecore's version of bowing to the WEM Gods.

Longtime Dutch competitor SDL Tridion hasn't changed its rather archaic pricing model, so no big news there. The company continues to sell licenses based on a variety of factors (servers, CPUs, users, number of publications in a Blueprint, etc.) and all modules, including the new Online Marketing Explorer (read WEM) get sold at an additional price. Historically, all Tridion add-ons have been licensed in this modular fashion. SDL's OME at this stage is nothing to write home about, very bubbly and choppy ride, but not much surfing value. Still, keep an eye on it and wait for glassy waves.

In both cases, be aware that (as my colleague Tony puts it) there are fewer lines of new code than lines of marketing text and messaging around these WCM vendors' Web Experience Management activities. Pardon me, a correction: SDL Tridion has its own moniker for WEM – Pervasive Engagement Management.

Most importantly, as they say in surfing, know your limits and your capabilities before jumping into the ocean and riding that WEM/WXM wave.