Benchmark on Document Management (1)

MALAYSIAN PUBLIC SECTOR

OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE (OSS) PROGRAMME

BENCHMARK/COMPARISON REPORT

DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

(NUXEO AND ALFRESCO)

DECEMBER 2009

MALAYSIAN PUBLIC SECTOR OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE PROGRAMMEPhase II : Benchmark/Comparison Report on Document Management

CopyrightThe Government of Malaysia retains the copyright of this document.


Table of Contents

SECTION 1 : INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................1EXECUTIVE SUMMARY........................................................................................................2INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................2

SECTION 2 : COMPARISON / EVALUATION TABLE................................................................3CONSIDERATIONS OF COMPARISON / EVALUATION.......................................................4

NUXEO...............................................................................................................................4ALFRESCO........................................................................................................................4

FEATURE COMPARISON TABLE..........................................................................................5SECTION 3 : CONCLUSIONS....................................................................................................9

CONCLUSIONS....................................................................................................................10SECTION 4 : REFERENCES....................................................................................................11

REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................12LINKS...............................................................................................................................12

SECTION 5 : APPENDIX..........................................................................................................13ALFRESCO...........................................................................................................................14NUXEO.................................................................................................................................18

Index of Tables

Table 1: Feature comparison between Nuxeo and Alfresco ......................................................8


SECTION 1 : INTRODUCTION


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Document Management Systems stand as one of the best solutions to manage an

organisation's documents. Using these tools, documents are easily stored, indexed, archived

and retrieved.

This evaluation presents findings on feature comparisons between open source versions of

Nuxeo and Alfresco. Both of these Document Management Systems also have commercial

versions, which are out of scope for this report.

These findings are intended as references for agencies wanting to implement an open source

Document Management System.

INTRODUCTION

Wikipedia defines Document Management System (DMS) as “a computer system (or set of

computer programs) used to track and store electronic documents and/or images of paper

documents”. In short, DMS is an electronic filing cabinet and a clerk rolled into one.

Nuxeo and Alfresco are categorised as DMS by virtue of their modules and components

which combine to provide a useful solution for administrative departments requiring to

manage and organise their documents.

Page 2


SECTION 2 : COMPARISON / EVALUATION

TABLE


CONSIDERATIONS OF COMPARISON / EVALUATION

This report intends to be an objective comparison between Nuxeo 5.3 and Alfresco

Community Edition 3.2. Both are considered stable, robust platforms for electronic document

management.

NUXEO

Nuxeo is a comprehensive free/open source software

Document Management System (DMS) platform. It has

been designed to be robust, scalable and highly

extensible, by using modern open source Java EE

technologies, such as: the JCR, JSF, EJB3, JBoss Seam, OSGi, and a Service Oriented

Approach (SOA). It can be used to develop both web-based server applications and Rich

Client applications. Nuxeo can run on various platforms because of its compatibility with

Microsoft Windows and other Unix-like operating system such as Redhat, Suse and Ubuntu.

ALFRESCO

Alfresco is a free/open source software, open

standards, enterprise DMS for Microsoft Windows and

Unix-like operating systems. Its design is geared

towards users who require a high degree of modularity

and scalable performance. Alfresco includes a content repository, an out-of-the-box web

portal framework for managing and using standard portal content, a Common Internet File

System (CIFS) interface that provides file system compatibility on Microsoft Windows and

Unix-like operating systems.

Page 4


FEATURE COMPARISON TABLE

FEATURES PERSPECTIVES

NUXEO ALFRESCO

Usability • Provides Nuxeo WebEngine as a creator of websites for free and completely Open Source. With this tool, you can create totally user-oriented portals without sacrificing all the benefits of records management.

• Provides a desktop application to manage content stored very fast, it is Nuxeo RCP

• Drag and drop articles, press releases, videos, and audio onto pages within their web site

• Point and click to rapidly assemble new experiences within their web site, ensuring content is delivered to exactly the right people in the right way

• Drag and drop articles, press releases, videos, and audio onto pages within their web site

• Point and click to rapidly assemble new experiences within their web site, ensuring content is delivered to exactly the right people in the right way

• Instantly preview all of their changes while leveraging Alfresco's innovative virtualisation server technology

• Manage the presentation and deployment of all electronic assets in the business

Page 5



NUXEO ALFRESCO

Functionality

Drag &Drop Stable, by using it daily, and several of clients as well. Reference from the case study program belonging to the Andalusian automous community of Spanish Government.

The experience of a client of Alfresco Community, reported that this functionality is completely unstable, having tested a large number of different settings (Firefox 3, IExplorer 7 etc.)

Live Edit Can use on-line editing of documents in a large number of configurations: Linux or Windows (XP and Vista) Explorer or Firefox, MS Office or Open Office. Besides, each one of them with multiple versions (Office 2003 and 2007, Firefox 2.X and 3.X, Explorer 6 and 7 ... etc). Totaling more than 60 possible combinations.

Users do not have information that they can not use FireFox (are forced to use Microsoft's browser) and install a Microsoft SharePoint module.

Tagging Both Document Management Systems allow users to "tag" (label) content to browse through the information using these tags. Nuxeo calls this "virtual browsing" and it makes sense for matters such as browsing the content of different countries (Europe images together) and then switch to browsing folders by "themes" for example images of Economics on the one hand, on the other sports.

Versions Both platforms also allow for easy management of versions. Version upgrades, the recovery of previous versions or consulting the history of actions on a document are incredibly easy.

Search Both Alfresco and Nuxeo based the search on open standard tools such as Lucene and Open Search. These search engines index all the documents (title and total content) in and resolve searches in less than 1 second ("Google" style).

Workflow The workflow engines of Nuxeo and Alfresco are based on JBPM (Java Business Process Management) and the use of workflows, involving users of the system is very simple. But this feature also tilts the balance back in favor of Nuxeo, the interface management on Alfresco's workflows forces the user to do too many steps to start them, because the wizard's too long.

Page 6



NUXEO ALFRESCO

Technology • J2EE architecture• JBoss• JBoss Seam• WebDAV• Nuxeo Core• Nuxeo WebEngine• Nuxeo Runtime• Support Database backend for

storage and authentication

• J2EE architecture• JBoss• WebDAV• CIFS (Common Internet File

System)• Support Database backend for

storage and authentication• Spring Framework• Alfresco Applications• Alfresco Repository

Price Both companies derive significant percentages of their revenue from providing support subscriptions. Alfresco charges something like RM 35,000 per CPU while Nuxeo charges on a per "application" basis, with a tiered program that starts at about RM 52,000 per application. So depending on the scale and support requirements, annual support costs could be significantly different. These parameters can vary a lot, so its not clear there are real cost differences here. However it would seem that on average a customer will pay more to get started with Alfresco

Community Supported

Yes Yes

Access to Fixes, Patches

Nuxeo developers and the Nuxeo community, it follows that all Nuxeo fixes are immediately available to anyone in the community that can make a build

Alfresco community must wait for any Alfresco Enterprise fixes to be merged from the Enterprise to Community repositories.

Extensibility Nuxeo has managed to keep many great ideas from their previous Zope based system integrating those ideas with a modern JEE application stack. Nuxeo is very extensible and well designed. Everything is pluggable using extension points which is a great pattern and considerably less confusing to mange in large-scale, heavily customized systems compared to AOP

Alfresco extensibility is based on Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) methodology which is very flexible

Partners For Partners and the many places in the world covered by these, Alfresco

Page 7



NUXEO ALFRESCO

is clearly superior to Nuxeo. It has more presence, more impact. But as said before citing the case of Windows Vista, the media, the size of companies and capital will not guarantee that software is of high quality.

Supported Operating System

• Windows Server • Linux• Mac OSX• Solaris• Ubuntu Server

• Windows Server • Sun Solaris 10• Mac OSX• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5• Ubuntu Server

Supported Database

• MySQL• PostgreSQL• Oracle 10• MSSQL • Apache Derby• HSQL

• MySQL• PostgreSQL• MSSQL • Oracle 10• Apache Derby • HSQL

Authentication • OpenLDAP (Open Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)

• MS Active Directory• NTLM (NT Lan Manager)• Database

• Active Directory LDAP• OpenLDAP• MS Active Directory• NTLM (NT Lan Manager)• Sun one Directory• Database• Kerberos

Table 1: Feature comparison between Nuxeo and Alfresco

Page 8


SECTION 3 : CONCLUSIONS


CONCLUSIONS

Both Nuxeo and Alfresco serve as Document Management Systems, each with its own

advantages and disadvantages. Based on the findings, we conclude that Nuxeo works as the

better Document Management System (DMS) platform with its powerful document

management functionality, user-friendly User Interface; and its vibrant user community.

Prepared by: Khairul Aizat Kamarudzzaman, OSCC MAMPU

Page 10


SECTION 4 : REFERENCES


REFERENCES

LINKS

• http://doc.nuxeo.org

• http://www.nuxeo.com

• http://www.alfresco.com

• http://blog.yerbabuena.es

• http://wiki.alfresco.com

• http://www.cmswire.com/cms/enterprise-cms/alfresco-improves-web-admin-usability-

002460.php

• http://www.qsos.org/sheets/ecm/Nuxeo/Nuxeo5-1.M1.html

• http://www.wikipedia.org

Page 12

http://doc.nuxeo.org/

http://www.wikipedia.org/

http://www.qsos.org/sheets/ecm/Nuxeo/Nuxeo5-1.M1.html

http://www.cmswire.com/cms/enterprise-cms/alfresco-improves-web-admin-usability-002460.php

http://www.cmswire.com/cms/enterprise-cms/alfresco-improves-web-admin-usability-002460.php

http://wiki.alfresco.com/

http://blog.yerbabuena.es/

http://www.alfresco.com/

http://www.nuxeo.com/


SECTION 5 : APPENDIX


ALFRESCO

Diagram 1 : Alfresco's Architecture

http://wiki.alfresco.com/w/images/0/0e/Alfresco_Repository_Architecture_diagram1_colored.png

Page 14


Diagram 2 : Spring Framework Architecture

http://wiki.alfresco.com/w/images/c/ce/Alfresco_Repository_Architecture_diagram2_colored.png

Page 15


Diagram 3 : A Triplet of Key Foundation Services

http://wiki.alfresco.com/w/images/4/4c/Alfresco_Repository_Architecture_diagram3_colored.png

Page 16


Diagram 4 : Alfresco's Protocols

http://wiki.alfresco.com/w/images/d/d0/Alfresco_Repository_Architecture_diagram4_colored.png

Page 17


NUXEO

Diagram 5 : Nuxeo Core Architecture

http://doc.nuxeo.org/5.2/books/nuxeo-book/html/pictures/NuxeoCoreSchema.gif

Page 18


Diagram 6 : Nuxeo's Platform

http://doc.nuxeo.org/5.2/books/nuxeo-book/html/pictures/nuxeo-ecm-archi.gif

Page 19

Documents

Benchmark on Document Management (1)