Where is Drupal Heading?

The famous CMS platform doesn't need an introduction to web administrators, but where is it heading, and how does it compare with other well-known CMS platforms like Joomla! and WordPress? We spoke to the creator of Drupal in person to find out

Thursday, December 01, 2011

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When it comes to open source CMS platforms, three names don't need any introduction--Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress. Here again, the battle for supremacy is primarily between Drupal and Joomla. So when Dries Buytaert came over to India, it was only natural for us to pose questions about the future of Drupal and how it compares to its arch-rival Joomla as well as other CMS platforms. Presented here are details of the face-to-face interview where we also discussed the RedHat style paid support business model for Drupal called 'Acquia'.

What's the future of Open Source CMS systems?

The web is changing rapidly. I believe only an Open Source solution can keep up with the pace of innovation. Proprietory competitors may have engineering teams of 30, 50 or maybe 200 engineers at max working on the core product, and their roadmap is largely fixed. Contrast that with Drupal which has 13,000 contributing developers from 150+ countries providing over 10,000 add-on modules to enhance functionality and it makes for large scale innovation on a level never previously seen in enterprise software.

What are the differentiating features of Drupal, when compared to other popular open source CMS systems like Joomla!, WordPress etc?

WordPress and Joomla! are both excellent products which have really pushed open source forward on the web. Drupal is used at all levels from tiny non-profits to the White House and New York Stock Exchange, but I think it really differentiates itself from the other systems because it is able to handle the complex requirements and the performance needs of large scale enterprise systems better. Another key differentiator is the Drupal community. Joomla! has a model wherein some add-on developers sell the code they have built. This has created a community of consumers rather that contributors. In Drupal, all the code is free, and companies make money on services and support. By our estimates, the Drupal community is the largest open source project in the world from the perspective of the number of active contributors. Finally, while each system is classified as a CMS or WCM system, it is a little more nuanced. Joomla! has historically been used in "normal" websites where there are a couple administrators, and visitors to the site are by and large just consuming content, with light social features such as commenting being a bit of an afterthought. Drupal and WordPress on the other hand started as social solutions and the content management features grew from there. WordPress is a great blogging engine, perhaps the best in the world if all you want is a straightforward blog. Drupal can also do blogging well out of the box, but Drupal has become a framework for building many different types of applications on the web and on mobile devices. For instance, Drupal is used for e-commerce, intranets, analytic dashboards, complex editorial workflows and more. So it is not only a CMS, but also a platform developers can use to build many types of rich applications. This makes Drupal more acceptable in the enterprise.

What shall be the exciting new changes in future releases?

The #1 priority for Drupal 8 is mobile. I want Drupal to be the go-to-platform for engaging users on all devices. This not only means HTML5, responsive design and mobile optimized web rendering, but also new web service layers and APIs for building native applications in iOS and Android. You can already do all of this in Drupal 7 via the contributed module (add-on) space, but in Drupal 8 it will become part of the core product. Also expect to see more robust enterprise features in the areas of configuration management and content staging.

What is your strategy for bringing more sites on the Drupal platform?

We have three strategic initiatives for growing Drupal:

1. Engage the community from the bottom-up. This means sponsoring the many spontaneously organized events by local Drupal user groups around the world (Acquia is sponsoring 60 this quarter). Building this network of passionate developers drives innovation, learning and builds the SME market which gives us reach. http://groups.drupal.org is a good resource for finding these community groups.

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