Since the Summer of 2014, Kanban has been in love with Hippo.

Before that, we were making eyes at them from across the room, digging their style. But last summer, our engineers dug a little deeper and saw what was underneath–an open-source, modern framework; a robust developer community; an extensible architecture built on Java. That was when we carved our names in the tree. Kanban + Hippo.

We trained with their team, became certified Hippo partners and created solutions for our clients. Now that they are hosting their first conference here in the U.S.–Hippo Connect, coming to Boston on October 1st–we are excited to join them as a sponsor and speaker, highlighting how leading brands can use intelligent content engineering principles to drive revenue, reduce costs and boost site performance. Continue reading →

 

Inc. magazine today ranked Kanban No. 3107 on the 2015 Inc. 5000 with a three-year growth rate of 111%. The Inc. 5000 is a list of the fastest-growing private companies in the nation. The performance also landed them as the 264th ranked company in the NYC metro area. Started in 1982, this prestigious list of the nation’s most successful private companies has become the hallmark of entrepreneurial success.  Kanban joins such notable companies as Yelp, Pandora, Timberland, Dell, Domino’s Pizza, LinkedIn, Zillow and others who gained early exposure as members of the Inc. 5000.

“We wake up each day thinking about the work that needs to get done. The best days are the ones where you go to sleep with a feeling of accomplishment. It is truly amazing what can be achieved with such a great team of dedicated and talented individuals.” says Josh Manton, CEO of Kanban. Continue reading →

As one of the newest entrants to this year’s Gartner Magic Quadrant for Web Content Management, Hippo CMS is seeing strong market recognition and adoption. Hippo recently announced record revenue and growth in North America, and has been nominated for Software Vendor of the Year by Computable.

Hippo CMS is also the only open source Java CMS in the Magic Quadrant. Combining open source technology, an active, prolific java developer community, and a modern, standards-based architecture addresses the sophisticated needs of enterprise clients.

Read the Gartner report here. Continue reading →

The Supreme Court this month declined Google Inc.’s appeal to overturn a lower court’s ruling in favor of Oracle. The decision by America’s highest court effectively hands a victory to Oracle in a legal battle that has raged for nearly 5 years.

The disagreement concerns Java, the language at the center of Google’s massively popular Android mobile OS. Oracle, which bought Java creators Sun Microsystems in 2010, attempted to strike a licensing deal with Android. When no deal could be reached, Google attempted to use Java in ways Oracle didn’t sign off on (reverse-engineering certain APIs without gaining proper licensing rights, etc). Oracle filed suit, claiming that APIs are creative works and, therefore, protected by copyright laws.

As we noted in this discussion of the Google vs. Oracle dustup, the Supreme Court’s decision could have grave consequences for open-source innovators and Java devotees alike. Java never would have lasted this long without the tireless work of innovative, open-source coders at Google and many other organizations improving and modernizing the language. Continue reading →

Website performance is no longer the concern of just the IT department. Marketing and business pros are keenly aware that web performance impacts customer experience, which in turn can have positive or negative impact on a brand.

Here at Kanban, we’ve been practicing the art and science of web performance for nearly a decade, considering the many opportunities to optimize experiences across the full technology stack, from the browser all the way back to data sources and systems of record. We pride ourselves on our ability to vet emerging technologies and tools that deliver value to our clients.

Varnish Software, and their product, Varnish Plus, is the latest example of this focus. Though Varnish as an open source HTTP accelerator is well known in tech circles, their enterprise suite of tools are just gaining traction in the US (Varnish Software is based in Oslo, Norway and has a strong history of adoption in Europe). We see a tremendous opportunity to expose the value of improved web performance, through Varnish Plus and other performance services, to engineering and marketing stakeholders alike.

Kanban has had the opportunity to work directly with Varnish Plus, gaining hands-on experience. Additionally, as a certified Varnish Plus Open Partner, our engineers and architects are fully trained in Varnish Software, making us uniquely positioned among the partner ecosystem to integrate and implement Varnish Plus. Most importantly, our clients have seen very compelling results.