Welcome to the JAMstack Era (Part 3)

How the JAMstack Supercharges your Enterprise

The move towards putting more functionality into the frontend and creating single-page apps has led enterprises to revisit the concept of microservices, focusing on decoupling services and using APIs to connect components. This component-driven mindset, alongside the growth in cloud-managed IT systems, has encouraged enterprises to abstract their backends by using APIs to access components like databases.

One of the key enablers of the JAMstack model is the ability to manage all content assets and the build process via a Git repository. This creates a single source of truth and introduces version control processes. Git enables code commenting and implements clear authorization chains for how pull requests are pushed to production.

This introduces the modern workflow in which an enterprise developer team can take the content and create a build, drawing from the Git repo and using APIs to enable additional functionality. Pages are then pre-rendered and sent to a content or application delivery network so that when a customer requests a web page, there is no querying of a database and no creation by the server of the page. Instead, it is served as a cached static file from the CDN/ADN, instantly to the customer’s browser.

The JAMstack Simplifies New Content Creation for the CMO

How an enterprise enables content creation and delivery to customers through web products is a major focus of current reorientation efforts occurring in many companies. In exactly the same way as enterprises wrestled with monolithic code bases prior to adopting microservices, businesses around the world are now seeking ways to dismount their third party monolith, the Content Management System often delivered via WordPress, Drupal, Sitecore or Adobe.

Many of the pain points described above have now reached critical mass (see in Section Four: CMS and LAMP Stack Deficiencies). Not only are they affecting the ability of enterprises to ship web products and engage with customers, but they are also having an impact on developer retention and workforce morale.

The 2019 Stack Overflow Developer survey found that 70% of respondents identified Drupal as their most dreaded web framework. As a comparison, JavaScript was the most loved programming language amongst 67% of respondents and the JavaScript frameworks React and Vue were the top two ranked most loved web frameworks.

In this same survey, WordPress was ranked number one as the “most dreaded” platform for developers to use, with 60% of respondents dreading having to use WordPress in their work. That same dread with using WordPress, or systems like Adobe Experience Manager, is now also impacting creatives.

Many are frustrated by the complexity and confusion of new CMS “features” and struggle to adapt to overhauled approaches to how their content is uploaded and reviewed. This is frustrating enough for text additions, but for those working on design elements and images, the overbearing and overriding nature of many LAMP-based CMS systems that seek to reformat a creative’s vision into what it thinks the creative wants to do is often now delaying delivery timelines.

How the CMS is Now Holding CMO’s Back from Delivery

In the new digitally savvy enterprise, CMOs rose to become a key stakeholder in the C-suite, being able to demonstrate revenue generation through their work by creating landing pages, managing campaigns, building engaging websites, and delivering a regular stream of content. Part of that strength came from the CMO’s user-centered design approach and the use of data to identify and respond to customer needs.

This integral role in the C-suite is losing some capital, as web products built using a CMS load slowly, reduce revenue generation opportunities and drive away potential customers. In addition, key revenue-generating business logic can easily falter as the addition of one component may unintentionally prevent sales-focused engagement events from triggering in a workflow.

Much like the decoupling of frontend and backend development and IT systems, a JAMstack enables the decoupling of content creation and design from development so that revenue risks are eliminated and product development is sped up. The JAMstack helps CMOs maintain a role as revenue-generating engines for an enterprise.

Headless CMS: Making Life Easier for Creatives (and Frontend Developers, and CMOs!)

A headless CMS allows creatives to more easily share and upload their content in ways that mimic early Wordpress CMS interfaces but without the reintroduction of monolithic codebases or the complexity of “user-friendly” drag and drop tools and feature overload. A headless CMS is an interface that CMOs can use to allow creatives to upload their content, without them having to use Git. A headless CMS enables live previews in a staging-like environment so that a creative can adjust their content after review, without impacting on the build process. The design of the content is separated from developer builds, so that developers handle the business logic and can ensure that revenue-generating component of a web product function properly and are not compromised by new design element additions.

The JAMStack Era Begins Now

The IT modernization and reorientation process in itself has not been enough to improve the competitive strength of enterprises. The adoption of new C-suite skills and business management models that leverage user-focused design and data collection have not been enough to speed up product development to meet customer demand. Larger developer workforces in the enterprise have not been enough to increase productivity and streamline operations.

For many forward-thinking enterprises, IT modernization, digitally-oriented management models, and a developer workforce are now in place. The JAMstack is the new digital workflow that can now utilize these core fundamentals to generate 10X enhancements in product development velocity. And with Netlify as your JAMstack infrastructure provider, you can enforce a management model that harnesses:

• Consistent IT oversight on the use of developer tools, APIs, and frameworks
• A single-point-of-truth for all web applications (those in production and in development/staging)
• Simplified, automated workflows

Customers can engage with an enterprise at any time, wherever they are, through Netlify’s application delivery network that serves up pre-rendered, dynamic, and secure web products instantly. Application monitoring and server performance are handled by the application delivery network and an infrastructure-as-code automated approach.

Data can inform product design and iteration, with new features previewed internally and pushed to production in a single workflow, using a common toolchain. Unsuccessful or outdated features can be rolled back easily, while revenue-enhancing features can be deployed instantly across an enterprise’s entire product range.

Frontend developers are attracted to and want to work with Netlify and other JAMstack tools. That means enterprises using JAMstack technologies can recruit and retain talented developers who want to build products, not infrastructure.

The WebriQ JAMStack Application

WebriQ has been building Jamstack websites for almost four years and is considered as one of the pioneers in using the JAMStack in commercial deployments. With over 250 projects under our belt, we are an experienced team of developers solely focused on JAMStack websites, web applications and progressive web applications (PWA).

One of the challenges of the JAMStack is that the stack is not monolithic, so there are many various frameworks, Static Site generators, publishing platforms, APIs and automation to choose. It kind of needs to be glued together with some initial choices to be made at the start of each project.

WebriQ has made these fundamental choices for you:

• A GIT based workflow
• React-based Static Site Generator (GatsbyJS)
• A headless CMS approach with Sanity
• Micro and serverless services for Forms and other interactive applications
• Most common APIs available from services like Algolia, Stripe etc.
• Netlify for builds and publishing websites and web application

All our expertise has been bundled into a React-based WEB APPLICATION. Through the WebriQ APP, you can: Provision any JAMStack website

• Change code on any JAMStack website through a GIT workflow
• Content manage and update any JAMStack website
• Publish any JAMStack website through Netlify
• ADD serverless Forms to any JAMStack website
• ADD an SSL certificate to any JAMStack website
• ADD collaborators (like editors or developers) to any JAMStack website
• Redirect your JAMStack to multiple Top Level Domains
• Track your web visitors through integrated WebriQ analytics