Compared with most organizations, enterprise business needs to maintain a scalable and reliable network presence in order to remain competitive. To this end, IT leaders of many large enterprises have always sought expensive network solutions that require proprietary support contracts to ensure quality. But there is another way. WordPress, which has been around for more than a decade and now powers 43.3% of the network, is steadily becoming a solution that even the largest enterprises need to focus on.
in this article, we will introduce the special needs of large enterprises, discuss the platform with experts in the field, and explore many reasons why WordPress is so suitable for enterprise business. In addition, we will also discuss the competitors and myths of the platform. Let’s start with some simple definitions and backgrounds. What does the
enterprise (Enterprise) what does it mean?
obviously, “Enterprise” itself is a general term, but when applied to a particular type of enterprise, it usually refers to a large enterprise, usually a multinational enterprise. These institutions are usually made up of organizational units with their own budgets and goals.
people’s precise definition of corporate business varies greatly, but as far as network technology is concerned, corporate websites usually need to be able to handle large amounts of traffic, especially media sites.
in addition, corporate websites usually have to strike a balance between localization, multilingual content, and many small and micro sites. Enterprise solutions also often have complex access requirements, including roles and permissions that need to be clearly defined. As the most popular content management system in the world,
has more than a decade of active development history (and has spawned a billion-dollar company in the form of Automattic), and it is mature enough to meet these requirements.
here, we have covered the history of WordPress in depth, so we are not going to repeat it. However, a look at the blue-chip corporate customers served by WordPress.com and WordPress.org is enough to determine the platform’s current qualifications in this area. How much do
enterprises know about WordPress?
Kevin Bridge (Kevin Ohashi) is a well-known consultant in Washington, D.C. As a consultant, he works with clients to design, build, and build websites and software applications. He also runs ReviewSignal, a well-known web hosting review site. We asked him how much corporate customers knew about WordPress.
Q: whenever corporate customers ask you for advice on content management system options, what do they ask most? What are their priorities?
the biggest question I face is: can it do what I want to do? How much does it cost? Why should we use X instead of Y or Z?
, however, they are most concerned about delivering results and costs. The third question will be asked only if they have used a product in the past or heard that someone has used another product.
it also depends on how the consultant guides the conversation. The goal of a good consultant is to convince clients that they can provide them with something of value. The basic technology used to achieve the goal is almost irrelevant. I will recommend to them the tools I think best suit their needs.
Q: what was their first reaction when WordPress appeared in the enterprise as a possible CMS solution? How much do they know about WordPress and are they willing to choose WordPress for their project?
I think almost everyone has heard of WordPress now. I seldom need to introduce it anymore. Their reactions are generally divided into “I’ve heard of it”, “I’ve used it before” and “I don’t like it”. If they have used
before and like it, they will mention it in advance, and generally speaking, they will want to continue to use it. I find that most clients don’t have much opinion about the content management system and really need consultants to help them understand what is a good way to solve the problem.
Q: in what areas do you think WordPress should be improved to make it more attractive to enterprises?
I think consultants who serve corporate clients need to be persuaded. In the final analysis, they are often the ones who give advice and make decisions on behalf of their clients. In addition, the impression that WordPress only applies to blogs still lingers. But I really don’t know how to change this view. What about
Drupal?
despite the amazing success of WordPress, it is far from the only CMS solution that enterprises can consider. Joomla and Drupal are the two most popular open source alternatives, of which Drupal has always been regarded as the best choice for enterprises.
However, is this still the case? While Drupal has provided impressive support for large websites such as the Economist, the platform has not developed smoothly in recent years.
as an open source solution, Drupal has encountered some high-profile security issues in the past few years, but its biggest problem may be the slow progress between major releases. The upgrade problems that follow also hurt many users. Today, if you look at the two platforms side by side, WordPress is obviously better. Please read our detailed comparison guide: WordPress vs Drupal-which is better? (pros and cons)
in addition, according to W3Techs, WordPress accounts for 63% of the CMS market.
‘s common misconceptions about WordPress
Unfortunately, there are long-standing misunderstandings about WordPress, many of which cause unnecessary damage to the applicability of WordPress as an enterprise solution. Most of these misunderstandings of
are based on the old version of the software, and the overall level and functionality of the software at that time are still far from what they are today. Before we go any further, let’s talk about some of the more obvious myths.
‘s misconception that 1:WordPress applies only to blogs
WordPress has reason to be proud of its roots in the blogosphere, and the platform’s stated goal-democratization of publishing-seems to be based on that. The history of
WordPress has led some large companies to think that the platform is nothing more than an improved blogging engine, but this is not the case today. Currently, more than 43.3% of websites use WordPress. At this stage, gone are the days when WordPress was just a blog solution.
misconception that 2:WordPress is full of loopholes on security issues another misunderstanding of
about WordPress is that its security record is poor. In this regard, WordPress has indeed experienced some unsatisfactory years-2009 was a particularly depressed period-but its recent record is reliable, especially given the size of the target it represents. The best practice steps for
locking platforms are well known, security releases are priority and rapid, and the WordPress security team is currently made up of 25 experts, including lead developers and security researchers.
third-party themes and plug-ins are still possible attack carriers, but the core software has never been more secure. For more tips on how to secure your WordPress website, check out our in-depth guide: the ultimate guide to WordPress security.
myth 3: open source is a weakness, not an advantage.
‘s last myth about WordPress will shock many people, but it is still an unfortunate reality in some parts of the enterprise-open source software cannot be relied on at the enterprise level.
in 2015, this claim should have been settled a long time ago, but you will still see it come to the surface from time to time. In addition to powering the vast majority of networks, Linux’s influence in the enterprise sector is also steadily growing. Large companies such as Facebook and Google also make open source the absolute core of their technology stacks. As an open source project,
WordPress’s commitment to GPL is a huge strength, not a weakness. It is this rock-solid open source support that makes the software flourish and provides a solid service platform for thousands of enterprises. The technological advantages of
Enterprises using WordPress
We have introduced some myths that prevent enterprises from adopting WordPress, but there are also a series of very reliable technical reasons that make WordPress an ideal choice for enterprises of any size. Let’s take a look at the main reasons.
WordPress is extensible, flexible, and economical.
WordPress’s early decision to extend the platform through plug-ins was at the heart of its success. It enables the core team to keep the main body of the platform relatively concise, while meeting the needs of consumers in the form of dedicated plug-ins, opening the door for the emergence of new industries.
this is good news for enterprise administrators because they have complete control over what is added to the underlying platform they install, as well as an easy-to-understand framework to create their own custom code if necessary. In this way, small internal teams can quickly complete prototyping and actual deployment.
WordPress supports responsive development
. Today’s world has gone far beyond the edge of the mobile tipping point, and native support for responsive design is necessary. The management and default themes of
WordPress are responsive by default, and front-end developers can choose any responsive front-end theme framework based on WordPress to design or launch their own solutions.
WordPress is extensible another key selling point of
WordPress is its extensibility. The core network technology adopted by WordPress has been verified by practice for many years and can be expanded on a large scale.
is in the middle of a well-known stack, whether in terms of database tuning, network server optimization, or advanced caching strategies, so developers don’t have to reinvent the wheel for enterprise operations. The success of companies such as
Automattic and Incsub shows that the WordPress platform can handle almost anything as long as it is debugged correctly. Another technical advantage of
WordPress for search engine optimization
WordPress is that it is search engine friendly. While you may need to install a plug-in to simplify page search engine optimization (the Yoast SEO plug-in and All-In-One SEO Pack are two popular solutions), WordPress is naturally good at this. This is an important selling point for corporate websites that may have a lot of content.
Another advantage of WordPress constantly updating
WordPress is that it is constantly updated. WordPress has been updated 20 times this year, an average of twice a month.
WordPress supports multisite and multilingual features
WordPress has supported multisite since version 3.0. Enterprise users are free to handle complex requirements with only one WordPress installed, which means less time and server resources. Multilingual solutions can also be easily enabled, and professional plug-ins such as WPML can handle all aspects of translating and deploying content. Please check out this multilingual WordPress setup guide.
WordPress REST API opens the door to the wider programmatic world.
WordPress REST API has the potential to change the platform forever, and it is slowly moving into the heart of software.
when it finally arrives, REST API will enable developers to programmatically interact with the software in a whole new way. To make a long story short, WordPress is gradually becoming an application framework suitable for enterprises.
WordPress does not force companies to work with one vendor. Another feature of
WordPress is that its open source features do not bind enterprise users to black-box solutions that are difficult to customize and expensive to upgrade, nor do they force users to work with only one vendor. Enterprise customers have a variety of solution providers to choose from.
WordPress user-friendly
has always been one of the main selling points of WordPress is the friendliness of its management interface. The navigation in the WordPress background is very intuitive, even for beginners. This is a big selling point whether it’s for internal users (not all users are technicians) or when selling software to enterprise customers.
WordPress provides simple role management for different levels of access
WordPress allows administrators to set different levels of access for users through an easily extensible system of user roles and permissions. IT teams can take advantage of WordPress’s predefined roles to cover many common use cases and can choose to extend these roles at any time to meet custom needs. The current situation of
Enterprise WordPress
in order to further understand why WordPress is an ideal choice for enterprises, we asked Automattic platform Services Director and WordPress.com VIP-Peter Slutsky about the current situation of WordPress at the enterprise level. Many of
‘s high-traffic corporate websites are hosted on WordPress VIP, and they received a lot of feedback from customers, so we decided to learn more.
Q: what is the current situation of WordPress at the enterprise level?
In the first few years of its development at WordPress,
was only seen as a blogging platform, and because of this application, it became very prominent. However, WordPress has changed and made great progress in the past few years, and the vast majority of users now use WordPress as a complete content management system, not just blogs.
today, WordPress serves 43.3% of the Internet, and in this 43.3% of the Internet, most users use WordPress as a complete content management system. In this portfolio, there are many examples of enterprise-level websites in all major industries, including media, finance, higher education, entertainment, politics, government-and so on.
Q: what are the specific advantages of enterprises using WordPress?
There are many reasons why
WordPress has become an attractive software solution in the enterprise world. WordPress is extensible, flexible, and affordable (free in most cases! ) and open source.
WordPress can power your mother’s cat blog as well as large websites such as Mercedes-Benz, Sony Music, BBC America, the New Yorker and time. Check out our article to learn about the more than 130 WordPress sites that dominate the web. Iterative updates to WordPress don’t break previous versions-we call it backward compatibility, which means that, unlike Drupal, you don’t have to rebuild the site from scratch in order to update the software.
WordPress also offers thousands of plug-ins and themes, and has a vast ecosystem and developer / design community around WordPress, so no matter where you are, you can find great people to work for your site. Here is how to install the WordPress theme.
We have passed the era of using expensive proprietary software, in which companies and organizations are locked in expensive long-term transactions, while content management systems are not excellent. The future belongs to open source software, and as the numbers show, WordPress dominates almost all areas.
Q: more and more highly visited websites are using WordPress. To give just one example-the New Yorker has moved to WordPress. What do you think is the reason for your success?
in fact, the New York Times has been using WordPress for a long time-they recently made some big updates and used WordPress- in some super creative ways, which is an exciting evolution. The same goes for the Washington Post. Although
WordPress dominates the field of large media, it is exciting that it is also used for the rise of independent media. Sites such as Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight and Re/code also use WordPress.
I have some knowledge of Automattic and WordPress.com and the product roadmap of WordPress.org. I can only say that there will be some very exciting things happening in the future, which I think will help WordPress change from a software solution used by 43.3% of web users to a software solution used by most web users in the next few years.
Q: what do you think of the future of WordPress at the enterprise level?
Oprah Winfrey (Oprah Winfrey) once said, “when I look forward to the future, it is so bright that it burns my eyes.” This is my view of the future of WordPress, especially in the areas of business and government.
as I mentioned earlier, I have seen the product roadmap, and I know that more than 400 colleagues at Automattic are working hard to ensure the longevity and availability of WordPress for many years to come.
in the near future, we will certainly see the gradual demise of expensive proprietary software, and in this transition, open source software and WordPress will rise. The future has come. It’s exciting! The list of brands mentioned by
Slutsky is just the tip of the iceberg. Other well-known companies such as the Huffington Post, Xerox, Harvard Business Review (Harvard Business Review), TurboTax and Spotify now make WordPress their first choice for CMS. One of the many advantages that the
WordPress ecosystem
WordPress provides for enterprises is the community of users, developers, and support vendors that the platform provides. These factors combine to form a valuable ecosystem that companies can rely on to gain support.
Enterprise WordPress managed
this platform is well optimized by default, but a dedicated enterprise WordPress hosting environment is still required to ensure optimal performance.
traditionally, enterprise customers handle most of the heavy work on their own, but with the growing popularity and power of hosted WordPress hosting solutions, outsourcing has become a real choice.
‘s highly specialized server settings, cache layers, automatic backups and security arrangements are now the norm, and world-class support gives enterprise customers the confidence to turn to third-party providers to manage WordPress hosting.
professional WordPress development companies are rising rapidly
in the past few years, a new group of high-profile WordPress development organizations, such as 10up, Westwerk and HumanMade, have emerged, all of which are good at dealing with enterprise customers.
We contacted Travis Totz, a senior website strategist at Modern Tribe, and asked him some questions.
Q: Modern Tribe is a well-known web design and development company. You create WordPress-based websites for large international companies. Why did you choose WordPress? what are the main advantages of this content management system?
We have been using WordPress and other platforms for several years, and we have found that we prefer to use WordPress compared to other platforms and content management tools. Of all the platforms we have used, WordPress is the most comprehensive, community-centric, community-oriented platform.
WordPress focuses on the ease of use of the admin panel, making it “easy” for customers to grasp and understand. For us, the real advantage of WordPress is that it is an excellent and cost-effective platform without the complexity and complexity of customized content management systems and enterprise solutions.
Q: many people know that WordPress is a blogging platform, but it has become more and more powerful. Do you think it can gain a foothold in an enterprise environment?
, of course. In the final analysis, WordPress is a good core code base that can provide excellent solutions to customers’ problems. This is especially true in an enterprise environment where customers have countless interactive needs, and with WordPress, we can start with a great platform and build on it.
also saves customers time and money because they don’t have to buy expensive servers or licenses to use an “enterprise-specific” content management system platform-which could keep them on the same path within a few years. We haven’t met a client who doesn’t agree with the idea.
WordPress is fully capable of meeting your needs, and you just need to open yourself up to accomplish the task in an open source and community-driven way of thinking.
Q: what do you think of the future of WordPress at the enterprise level?
We believe that WordPress is the solution for enterprise customers and projects. The platform has been supported by about 43.3% of Internet users, which shows that it is committed to the Internet and the use of many users.
WordPress enables us to complete advanced projects more efficiently, saving enterprise customers the additional cost of using proprietary content management system platforms or extremely expensive servers, which is a real win-win for all participants. I wouldn’t be surprised that the proportion of
users will continue to grow in just a few years, and the proportion of enterprise customers will grow rapidly.
even if you’re not going to be an agent, it’s easier than ever to find professional freelance WordPress developers. In the past five years, there have also been a number of on-demand solution providers specializing in support and maintenance services, such as, WP Site Care and WP Buffs.
more and more WordPress enterprise customers
We see more and more enterprises starting to use WordPress, so we want to end with a real example. We asked Yvonne Young (Evonne Young), deputy director of the Caesar Family Foundation (Kaiser Family Foundation), why and how they moved from a customized outdated content management system to WordPress.
Q: the website of the Caesar Family Foundation was moved to WordPress from the old platform. When and why do you think it’s time to make a change?
We launched kff.org on WordPress in May 2013. We haven’t redesigned the site since 2003, so we should have overhauled the front end and back end of the site a long time ago. We have several redesign goals: the
- integration site.
- improves the architecture of the website.
- improved search.
- simplifies the content management system and improves the convenience and efficiency of publishing information.
- reduces hosting costs.
Q: why choose WordPress over other content management systems?
We have considered Drupal, but we are worried about its ease of use and expensive upgrade costs. We like the intuitive background of WordPress-making it easy for policy or propagandists to understand and update content.
‘s ability to use plug-ins instead of building everything from scratch is also attractive, and the open source environment gives us the freedom to develop new features quickly and cheaply.
Q: is it difficult to migrate the website to WordPress? How long did it take?
Yes, migration is a challenge. The main goal of this project is to merge different systems running orphaned sites on many different domains into a single site that runs a single code base.
We extract content from six different systems-I know our developers have to write a custom script and run the migration multiple times to be successful!
Q: would you recommend WordPress for other similar high-traffic sites?
Yes, WordPress has proved that it is more than just a blogging platform.
summary
WordPress is at a fascinating moment in its history. It has long been rid of the roots of blogging (although it is still an excellent blogging solution) and quietly accounts for an amazing amount of total online traffic.
now, many factors indicate that the enterprise is the next major driver of WordPress’s continued expansion. The WordPress platform has recently released a series of exemplary products, and REST API is about to be launched, and more and more enterprise users are satisfied with the commercial and community versions of the software.
as we shared in the interview shows that now is the best time to consider using it to meet the needs of the enterprise.
, we’d love to hear what you think. Is WordPress on your waiting list for your next enterprise upgrade? Please contact us through comments!
