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A Content Management System (CMS) is software that is installed on a web server and which allows you to manage all the contents of your site via your web browser.  A good system will support, apart from the usual text and images, audio and video content, including podcasts, forums and blogs, and often much else besides.

Another important aspect of a well designed CMS is that it draws a fairly clear distinction between the site content, i.e, your data, and the look and feel of the site, often referred to as the 'theme' or 'skin' of the site.  What this means is that when you want to change how your site looks it is often just a simple case of downloading and installing another theme, and changing a setting in the CMS.  It's true that it can get more complicated than this depending on how far you want to take it.  For example you could pay a designer/coder to write a whole new, original theme.

Some companies sell their own in-house developed CMS.  There are probably some advantages to this, assuming it is well written, but also a number of disadvantages.  First and foremost, once you've developed your site using a proprietary system, there is not much chance of moving to an alternative system, or supplier, without completely redeveloping it again.  You have to be pretty sure that the supplier is going to be around for the long term.

A second point is that the development of the software will progress at a rate determined by the resources of one company, and the direction they decide.  In many cases it may not even be possible for outside developers to code you a new theme.

The alternative approach is to use freely available open source systems.  There are a number around that have acquired a large, active following of users and developers who are constantly adding new features and fixing bugs.  Our hosting services are suitable for running most open source CMSs, and our customers have installed a fair range already.  We have particularly chosen to specialise in Drupal for a number of reasons that we'd be happy to discuss with you.

At folly we are not interested in holding you to ransome.  We obviously hope, and believe, that once you've hosted with us you'll want to stay, but we also want you to be as independent as you feel comfortable with.  Using open source software you have full access to the system and can change it, add to it, or even take it away somewhere else.

If you would like to discuss further about what a content management system could do for your web presence please contact us.