Top 7 Azure CMSs in 2020

Disclaimer: I work for Agility CMS, so I have an obvious bias there, but I thought this would be a good list for the community to see.

The rise of digital content creation has sparked the creation of thousands of new websites every day. This rapid expansion is driving companies and creators to adopt content management solutions to get better control over their content.

Similarly, the rise of cloud storage solutions and the convenience of cloud hosting and platform-as-a-service solutions has made companies select cloud-based platforms to flexibly handle content growth without the complexities of managing highly available content.

Azure is one of the biggest contenders when it comes to cloud computing. It provides CMSs with the infrastructure they need to support marketers and content teams, and many CMSs have chosen to use it and do it successfully, sparking company-wide gains.

In this article, we'll show you 7 of the top Azure-enabled CMSs and share with you some of the advantages Azure brings to CMSs that translate to company gains.

Why Using Azure in a CMS?

One of the reasons Azure is a significant option for hosting and enabling CMSs is because Microsoft Azure was developed on the premise that all the applications running in the cloud shouldn't know the specific hardware they are running on, which means that any server in the Azure cloud will be able to host an application the same way.

Similarly, an essential aspect of hosting on Microsoft Azure is that the Azure Fabric Controller interface is continuously monitoring the state of the hardware. That way, in case a virtual machine hosting a server becomes unstable, the controller can reset that machine or switch the application to a new one without the intervention of the customer, reducing downtimes and crashes.

Benefits of Azure for Websites

Building a website is an exciting process, especially if you're using a CMS that takes the stress out of the equation.

Using a CMS powered by Azure helps you take things one step further, allowing for the development and addition of different apps to your website. With Azure, you can integrate new systems to your website, adding flexibility and features to your project.

These are some of its benefits at a glance:

• Powerful Analytics
• Versatile Framework
• SaaS App Integration
• High Level of Security
• Application Templates
• Visual Studio Integration
• Global Scale with High Availability

Top 7 Azure CMSs in 2020

Agility CMS

Agility CMS features a built-in Page Management  document management with a media library, version control and archiving, workflows management (user restricted access, approval processes), separation of content and design, tagging and content categorization, SEO features, social media integration and end-user interactive features (e.g. commenting, rating), and more. Users can also develop APIs and modules that can be added to increase its functionality (e.g. integration with an eCommerce system).

How Azure Supports Agility CMS

Thanks to Azure's Platform-as-a-Service products such as Service Fabric, App Service, and Elastic Database Pools, as well as their comprehensive security compliance, Agility CMS' customers now enjoy fast-loading sites that perform optimally under high traffic and pose no security challenges.

What Makes Agility The Top of This List?

In a headless CMS like Agility CMS, you start with the content.

For us, content architecture is the first step to build a successful website. You strategize, organize, and create content relations. Then, you can send the content via headless APIs to any destination, speeding website development.

Also, Agility CMS is so nimble that even if you start by thinking about the design, you can still implement a content-first approach to build a successful website or app.

With Agility CMS you can create static websites using JAMstack that are blazing fast and don't need to be scaled or maintained because it's all powered by Azure, which, in turn, enables static files to be delivered quickly over a global CDN.

DNN

DNN is an open-source CMS created to help marketers and developers build professional-looking, easy-to-administer eCommerce websites, social intranets, community portals, and partner extranets. DNN offers users a fast and easy-to-deploy solution when it comes to dynamic content.

How Azure Supports DNN Platform

DNN is compatible with Azure WebApp, and AzureSQL enables DNN Platform and its users to deploy and develop applications in Azure as they manage the underlying virtual machines for the user, allowing developers to only worry about deploying software.

Joomla 

Joomla helps both expert and novice users, empowering them to create powerful websites and apps while only requiring a server with PHP and either MySQL or SQL server to run it.

How Azure Supports Joomla

Using Azure, Joomla users can now build and host web apps and RESTful APIs in the programming language of their choice without managing infrastructure. When Joomla users leverage Azure, they get both autoscaling and high availability as Azure supports both Windows and Linux as well as enabling automated deployments from GitHub, Azure DevOps, or any Git repo.

Kentico Kontent

Kentico is a web content management system for building websites, online stores, intranets, and Web 2.0 community sites.

The CMS uses ASP.NET and Microsoft SQL Server for development via its Portal Engine, using Visual Studio, or through Microsoft MVC. Kentico is also compatible with Microsoft Azure.

How Azure Supports Kentico

Azure and Microsoft Cloud enable companies to scale flexibly with scheduled, rule-based auto-scaling. Kentico supports Azure CDN, geo-redundant storage, making sure users from all over the world access content quickly, making sites reliable and ready to perform.

Magnolia

Magnolia CMS is an open-source, Java-based, web content management system. Magnolia CMS provides the best blend of enterprise power and agility while giving you freedom over your DX stack. Integrate existing IT and business systems for your digital transformation.

How Azure Supports Magnolia CMS

Magnolia CMS is fully compatible with Microsoft Azure. The CMS uses the whole spectrum of its capabilities to bring the smoothest experience for developers and IT administrators. The usage of the Azure cloud platform avoids the complexity of the on-premise setup and improves work productivity.

Sitecore

Sitecore is a complete suite of tools with all a marketer needs to create relevant customer experiences, combining a CMS with a database to get contextual information from users.

How Azure Supports Sitecore

Using Azure, Sitecore provides an integrated user interface to manage cloud content delivery infrastructure, simplifying deployment. Sitecore Azure is built around Azure PaaS and includes automatic deployment as well as SQL databases to ensure continuous content delivery.

Read more about Sitecore and its Alternatives here.

Umbraco

Umbraco CMS is a friendly, open-source CMS that uses ASP.NET. Umbraco CMS is free and offers developers tremendous flexibility and possibilities of extension and integration.

How Azure Supports Umbraco

Umbraco CMS is a .NET solution that brings quickly to market dynamic web applications using ASP.NET framework. Before the 7.3 version, Umbraco didn't support auto-scaling with Azure Web Apps. Still, the newer release supports Web Apps as well as a better load balancing when running Umbraco on multiple servers and instances.

Agility CMS + Azure = Lightning-fast, Secure Development

One of the advantages of Azure is that it's the only cloud ranked by Gartner as an industry leader in IaaS, Virtualization Infrastructure, PaaS, and cloud storage services, which enables developers and marketers to integrate Azure with their websites and get huge performance gains.

Also, Azure's rich set of tools such as SQL Management Studio, API Apps, Mobile Apps, Logic Apps, TFS, and Visual Studio enables developers to concentrate on building apps and websites that work seamlessly while hosted both on-premise or in the cloud.

Read More: Agility CMS & Microsoft Azure Integrate