In June 2012, Acquia commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate the use of open source platforms. Forrester fielded a survey to 160 WCM decision-makers from a variety of organizations with more than 1,000 employees to explore some of these key themes, and interviewed a number of organizations about why they’ve had success with open source WCM. Those who have had success cite a number of reasons, including open source WCM’s flexibility when it comes to integrating with other digital experience solutions, increased availability of external resources to support open source WCM, and a focus on more than just cost reduction when considering open source WCM.

Forrester recommends that organizations considering new WCM products explore open source as a potentially viable option, take advantage of the lack of upfront license fee to pilot an open source project, engage with open source WCM communities for information and validation, and be sure to understand support options up front if they choose to proceed with an open source implementation.