At Last, A Major Update For PortalApp .NETAt Last, A Major Update For PortalApp .NET

In the content management system world, there's a fine line between "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and simply letting your product get stagnant while competitors race ahead. While it had been starting to look like Iatek's PortalApp .NET might be falling into the second category, the release last week of PortalApp .NET Enterprise 4.0 puts the company squarely back into the thick of things.Version 4.0 delivers a number of must-have tools and technologies -- blogging support and community features, for example -- that any modern CMS needs to offer if it expects to be taken seriously. You can bet that its existing customers have been breathing down their necks to get their hands on these new additions.

PortalApp .NET Enterprise 4.0 also offers improvements to content creation and management as well as broadening support for extensions that enhance the base functionality. Also notably improved is their support for a broad range of content types -- it now has templates for more than 100 different content types, and that's likely to continue to grow.

It's been nearly five years since PortalApp released version 3.0 -- practically an eternity in Internet technology time. The good news for PortalApp and its customer base (2,500 strong, at last count) is that PortalApp .NET Enterprise 4.0 is a solid release that's clearly intended to make up for lost time. One of the major items on PortalApp's road map is a free light version of PortalApp .NET, and while that will likely generate some interest, time will tell if dipping their toes into the Web 2.0 waters will be enough to sustain their momentum going forward.