Alfresco integrates Sharepoint capability in new release

Open-source content management vendor Alfresco released Alfresco Labs (Beta) 3 today, which acts as a seamless alternative for Microsoft Sharepoint. The latter capability is the result of a 2004 EU Commission ruling that ordered Microsoft to publish the Sharepoint protocols. Alfresco appears to be the first company to take advantage of this availability, and provide an identical Sharepoint experience for end users while using an Alfresco repository to store the content. Other enhancements include the new Surf platform based on Alfresco Web Scripts--a light-weight development environment similar to JavaScript--and an interface that enables business users to build small web applications to share content, collaborate and customize their user experiences. In September, they will be releasing a social networking application built on the Surf platform they are dubbing Alfresco Share.

This is a significant announcement. Alfresco has always offered a solid open-source enterprise content management alternative; with its ability to replace Sharepoint, if it works as advertised, it can provide end users with a comfortable experience using familiar Office tools while giving IT the flexibility to build its infrastructure any way it likes. Since Alfresco is open source and the Sharepoint protocol is now published, we should start seeing other companies follow suit with similar Sharepoint competitors. It should be interesting to see how this plays out, and how Microsoft and other competitors react to this news.

For more information, read:
- the CMSWire post
- DaniWeb TechTreasures Post