Start-up commercialises open source development

With a low barrier to entry, high developer popularity, and good software integration, PHP scripting language appealed to Victorian start-up Komodo for its development of a commercial, enterprise-grade content management system.

Komodo’s managing director David Warwick said a look at a variety of programming languages showed PHP was the most suitable tool to use.

“We looked at ASP, J2EE, Cold Fusion, and Web Objects but decided the most appropriate was PHP because it integrates will with the Apache Web server and MySQL database on Linux,” Warwick said.

“In the process we moved our development platform to Linux and adopted a commercial strategy around the Komodo CMS. This strategy is that for a lower TCO at a company that doesn’t have IT skills, we have built a polished, intuitive CMS with features that businesses want.”

Komodo adopted a proprietary model for its CMS, which Warwick said, “seems to be working”.

“The standard edition sells for $4000 per domain, the professional edition is for large organization at $9000 per domain, and the enterprise edition is a professional Web publishing and workflow application for $70,000,” he said.

“All the prices include taking the customer’s site and adapting it to Komodo so the prices are cheap and competitive. It’s hard to compare [prices] with open source content management systems unless you factor in the development and testing.”

Komodo also has a product development agreement that allows customers access to its source code under the proviso that it then isn’t used to compete with them and is used for business purposes.

“None of our developers would change from PHP as it offers a rapid development environment and its technology is independent of the business intentions of corporations,” Warwick said.

“Open source tools present a good way for Australian companies to get into software development.”

Komodo has been in development and implementation phases over the past three years with the first official release, version 1.0, earlier this year.

“The real guts of our IP is our go-to-market strategy as we know where our niche is,” he said. “The way to protect IP is to keep moving fast. When you stop and defend IP you don’t move forward.”

David Elson, managing director from Sydney-based PHP consulting firm Babel’s, agrees with Warwick.

“Many Australian companies are looking at PHP for commercial applications, particularly for Web front ends,” Elson said. “The costs and barriers to entry are very low and it's easier to develop larger sites with PHP.”

Elson said PHP doesn’t have all the enterprise features of J2EE or .Net but it has advantages with speed and Web server integration.