Alfresco prepares for the cloud through its Alfresco Enterprise 4.0, which will be the platform to run its content management software (CMS) in open-source. The release of Alfresco Enterprise 4.0 will allow the enterprise the ability to handle multiple clients at the same time and to allow them to improve their CMS services. This upgraded CMS will be offered to customers as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) by the second quarter of this year.

Alfresco chief marketing officer, Todd Barr said, “Alfresco Enterprise 4.0 is the foundational element in our cloud strategy.”

The new Alfresco 4.0 is more cloud-based, which can be accessed through a mobile device; has back-end performance upgrade and a more flexible and better browser interface.

The new software now runs using iPad and iPhone where users can create, annotate, save and edit files through the Alfresco repository. Organizations can also create a platform that will allow connection between other mobile users in the company.

Alfresco has also improved its user interface by including modern Web 2.0 features. They can easily like something from Facebook and tweet or follow from Twitter. Access and posting from various social networking sites like YouTube, Flicker and LinkedIn are now quick and easy. All these, plus data storage integration with DropBox will be completed by the end of the year.

The Alfresco 4.0 interface now operates through a simple drag and drop using a mouse. Files can now be previewed using the interface.

Administrators will now have better back-end control as they are allowed to manage with the use of a multi-tenant environment. They also have the option to control the Alfresco Index Server and the Alfresco Share collaboration application, which can be run on separate servers. This action will improve speed even with large deployments or even with side-by-side instances of applications.

Other improvements from the upgrade include the re-factored code that will improve performance. This will allow speedy upload time by as much as 3 times, accelerated dashboard performance by a factor of 10 and hasty document upload by as much as 25 to 50%.

The CMS software is still in its private Beta stage, but is expected to go public a few months from now. The first users that will benefit from it are organizations that are already using the Alfresco platform. Companies only need to have the Alfresco collaboration material and synchronization content to be able to run the hosted offering.

This Alfresco enterprise version contains all the features and functionality of the Alfresco Community 4.0, plus the additional CMS tools. It is prized at about US$20,000.