The need for enterprise agility and the ability to make better and more informed customer experience decisions in real-time has never been more critical. A 2022 survey issued by Insider Intelligence found that the experience a company provides is as important as its products or services for 88% of consumers worldwide.1 Luckily, with the evolution of composable architecture and tech stacks, businesses do not have to undergo a massive migration or overhaul to start reaping the benefits of intelligent digital solutions, such as email marketing, e-commerce, search, and customer data platforms (CDPs).
What's A Composable Tech Stack?
Before we jump into Sitecore XM Cloud, let’s break down what a tech stack is and how composability can transform your traditional tech stack into a solution tailored to your business needs.
A tech stack, or sometimes a "solutions stack", is a set of technologies stacked together to build a web or mobile application. A composable tech stack creates an ecosystem of technologies made up of individual architectural elements that, when integrated, form a best-of-breed holistic solution.
Composability is a design process that empowers businesses to leverage reusable components to create web or mobile applications more quickly and easily. Compared to monolithic architecture, where the front- and back-end are tightly coupled, composable architecture breaks technologies into more manageable and independent components or blocks. You can use as many or as few of these components as you’d like in your tech stack to create the best solution for your digital needs and goals. Think of it as a BYO (build-your-own) solution with intuitive technologies.
What Are The Benefits Of A Composable Tech Stack?
According to Gartner, ‘by 2023, organizations that have adopted an intelligent composable approach will outpace the competition by 80% in the speed of new feature implementation.’ But why?
Outside of simply keeping up with the competition, composable tech stacks offer opportunities unparalleled to their traditional or monolithic predecessors, especially for larger organizations with multiple brands or complex business needs. Composable tech stacks allow businesses to differentiate themselves by enabling digital properties to be readily adaptable to ever-changing requirements. Not only that, but building your tech stack with composable architecture saves your site from an overhaul migration. It also creates room for adding the tools and capabilities needed to help you perform your desired tasks.
Some of the most popular reasons businesses are flocking to composable architecture include:
Freedom Of Choice
Choose what you need when you need it by selecting specific technologies from a host of best-in-breed options.
Lower Total Cost Of Ownership
By implementing what you need when you need it, your site can evolve quickly by swapping technologies for ones that may be a better fit or removing technologies that no longer suit your needs.
Higher ROI
Composable tech stacks take a lot of pressure off your development team with their inherent headless architecture. Get memorable experiences to market sooner and with less developer productivity.
Flexible Development
Developers can build with the tools and languages they want with an API-first approach.
Why Is Sitecore Investing In Composable Architecture?
Sitecore has been investing in innovative SaaS-based solutions to expand their industry-leading digital offerings for several years. Their most recent acquisition, Reflektion, boasts an A.I.-powered search that broadens Sitecore’s ability to deliver exceptional commerce experiences. Reflektion, along with deals for Moosend, Boxever, and Four51, is part of Sitecore’s $1.2B growth plan.
Regarding composability, content management has long been at the core of Sitecore’s focus, and transitioning to the cloud was an obvious next step for the award-winning global software company. At last year’s Sitecore Symposium, Sitecore announced their plan to launch a fully SaaS Digital Experience Platform (DXP) in 2022. (And yes, everybody clapped.) This announcement was even more exciting because Sitecore would be rebuilding their flagship Experience Manager (XM) instead of moving directly to the cloud. This ambitious approach means that update and end-user customization challenges were considered throughout the rebuild instead of pushing those same challenges into the new cloud environment.
What Is XM Cloud?
Finally, we’ve made it to Sitecore's most recent—and most anticipated—product release, Sitecore Experience Manager Cloud (XM Cloud). What is it, and how will its composable architecture elevate your digital strategy?
Sitecore XM Cloud is a cloud-native, agile SaaS CMS built on a composable architecture, meaning you can purchase and make use of best-of-breed products, or even a fully integrated scalable platform to support your content, data, and customer needs as your business grows. This modern CMS combines easy-to-use content management and authoring for marketers with modern APIs and agile DevOps for developers.
Composable by nature, XM Cloud users can build the tech stack you need to achieve your goals—whether that means AI-driven omnichannel personalization or marketplace-ready commerce. With a higher-order headless environment, the composability of a modern tech stack tailored to your needs is within reach, empowering your teams to create and deliver memorable experiences at lightning-fast speeds.
Why XM Cloud?
XM Cloud introduces a no-compromise composable CMS that provides benefits to developers, marketers, and IT, including:
Speed
Fast, global content delivery APIs enable developers to create compelling experiences using the frameworks and languages of their choice, like Next.js and Vercel.
Agility
New tools enable marketers to customize content with reusable components and templates, while powerful APIs enable developers to create fast, modern experiences.
Relevance
Marketers can better drive relevance and optimize sites for conversion and engagement with embedded market-tested analytics and personalization capabilities.
Security
With XM Cloud, you'll never have to upgrade your tech stack again. XM Cloud is always up-to-date, and scales on-demand so businesses can power global, content-driven digital experiences.
What Other Composable Solutions Can I Add To My Tech Stack?
Sitecore has a stable of composable solutions to complement your tech stack. From omnichannel personalization to composable ecommerce to segmenting customer data and everything in between, Sitecore's composable products enable businesses to build the best tech stack for their individual needs.
Sitecore Personalize
Sitecore Personalize is a cloud-native solution that uses advanced decisioning models and machine learning for delivering tailored experiences. Get real-time behaviour insights and engage every customer (known and unknown) on any channel, and at scale.
Sitecore CDP
Sitecore Customer Data Platform (CDP) centralizes data, eliminating silos and ensuring that all data is utilized. The CDP is often referred to as the heart and soul of your martech stack because it's where data is collected, segmented, and organized.
Sitecore Send
Sitecore Send is an all-in-one, A.I.-driven email marketing automation solution that allows businesses to manage, grow, and scale meaningful email campaigns.
Sitecore OrderCloud
Sitecore OrderCloud is an API-first headless and cloud-native composable commerce platform. OrderCloud powers highly scalable and customizable eCommerce experiences, order management, and marketplace applications.
Sitecore Discover
Deliver personalized shopping experiences with Sitecore Discover. Leveraging A.I.-powered intent identification, offer individualized product search results, recommendations and merchandising in real-time.
How Can I Learn More About XM Cloud?
If you want to learn more about XM Cloud, SaaS, composability, or just Sitecore in general, be sure to explore our library of blogs. Have a specific question? Reach out to us at [email protected].
Robyn James
Content Marketing Strategist | Sitecore Strategy MVP
Robyn brings over ten years of experience crafting impactful content marketing and communications solutions for a number of high-profile brands. With diverse sector experience—including healthcare, energy, tourism, hospitality, and telecommunications—she has a deep knowledge set and the ability to easily adapt to differing industry needs.
Robyn is adept at blending data-driven research with a pragmatic approach to creativity, delivering results that inform audiences, change perceptions, or inspire action. In her spare time, she enjoys digital painting, reading, and being a pet mom to her fluffy brood of three.