Enterprise Content Management (ECM) applications have been around since the early 1990s and for many the underlying architecture has not changed much in that time. But the world has changed a lot in 30 years. 

ECM has evolved into Content Services, but that underlying architecture still remains largely stagnant, preventing Content Services from reaching its full potential.  However, cloud infrastructure providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) offer a new and interesting option — the ability for Content Services to operate on a new platform that offers the scalability, simplification, open integration, and cost efficiencies that customers are demanding today.

This opportunity shifts content services into the “cloud-first” realm, which despite their claims, most current vendors are not, with the exception of our friends at AODocs who offer cloud-first content services on the Google Cloud platform. By utilizing cloud object stores such as S3 or the Azure Blob Store, the industry is moving in the right direction. But there is much more that we can all do with a cloud architecture.

Docuvela is committed to exploring the possibilities of cloud-first content service and delivering a true cloud-first content services offering. We believe that a modern approach offers unique advantages over legacy alternatives in seven core areas:

Native Integration with Cloud Tools and Technologies

With content and data stored natively within AWS, businesses gain access to all the leading-edge technologies released by AWS. Tools such as Amazon Comprehend and Amazon Rekognition can analyze and extract insights from textual and visual content. Amazon Bedrock enables easy access to cutting-edge Large Language Model (LLM) AI services. AWS Elemental MediaConvert enables content transcoding, making it easier to convert media files into different formats and resolutions for optimal delivery to various devices and platforms.

These are only a few of the cloud technologies that provide significant value to a content services implementation, and this list will only continue to grow.  With a content services architecture that is truly cloud first, cloud-native integrations are simple and streamlined.

Scalable Serverless Computing

Legacy ECM applications are monolithic and complex architectures that need to be carefully planned and manually monitored to ensure scalability and optimized response times. An application that is specifically developed to take advantage of the cloud’s serverless compute approach automatically scales up and down based on demand, is significantly more cost efficient, and provides global scalability. 

This can be especially beneficial for fluctuating content loads, or CPU intensive activities such as resizing images, rendering documents or transcoding videos. To learn more, see our recently published article: Content Services Application Architecture: Highly Scalable Microservices vs. Traditional Three-Tier Approach.

Open Content Storage with S3

S3 scalability and durability is perfectly suited to store content. While many legacy ECM applications have S3 connectors, none are fully utilizing the power of S3. Fully cloud-based content services do not rely on a proprietary database, so content can be ingested or published using native AWS APIs. Complex migrations and data exports are not required. 

Additionally, implementations can support the storage of content on different storage tiers, providing significant savings for content that is rarely accessed. To understand more about the benefits of S3 cloud object stores, read our previously published blog article: Cloud Object Store vs. Traditional Content Store.

Ease of Integration

A modern, cloud-first content services application will allow content and metadata to be accessed through standard AWS APIs rather than the proprietary API approach by legacy vendors. Custom development will be required for integrations with legacy vendors, whereas a content services architecture that is fully cloud native would integrate out of the box (OOTB) with any software that provides AWS connectivity. 

Content Distribution

Accessing content worldwide can often introduce latency issues since large files take time to send over the network. Amazon CloudFront, AWS’s content delivery network (CDN), accelerates the distribution of content to end-users worldwide, reducing latency and ensuring fast and reliable content delivery. This service can be readily utilized if content is accessible natively with AWS APIs. 

NoSQL vs Relational Databases

For most legacy ECM systems, the backend database causes slow ingestion speeds and limits the amount of content that can be stored in a single repository. Re-indexing due to corrupt indices and out-of-tablespace errors are common ECM support issues. 

Proprietary database schemas also obfuscate the metadata and content location, requiring queries to the database prior to accessing a content file.  This obfuscation layer causes integrations to be complex and hard to maintain.  

By replacing the database with OpenSearch (a NoSQL technology), the database is eliminated, content can be ingested at significantly higher speeds, and scalability has been proven to support billions of objects with ease.

Cost Savings

By fully embracing the cloud using NoSQL, Serverless Compute and S3, the backend architecture of the content services solution becomes significantly simpler, reducing the excessive  servers required for an on-premises environment to a few cloud-native services. This simplified architecture significantly reduces maintenance costs, upgrades and points of failure.

Additionally, resources for AWS and other cloud-native platforms are plentiful, whereas resources for proprietary content platforms are hard to find and expensive. 

Summary

With a move towards content services and away from a “document management as an application” focus, modern Content Services Platforms need rebuilding from the ground up to focus on a new approach rather than relying on overly complex, inefficient, and very expensive paradigms from the 1990s. The AWS platform offers an opportunity to rethink the way that we provide content services to the world and creates an innovative platform for current and future benefits.  

But what do you think? We would love to hear your thoughts. Comment or contact us to start a discussion!