Sitecore’s Transition to a Modern Cloud Architecture
Nearly a year ago, I published a blog talking about identifying the right time to upgrade from Sitecore XP to Sitecore XM Cloud. In 2022, Sitecore announced they were going to be transitioning their core CMS solution to a cloud architecture with the release of XM Cloud. Since then the landscape has shifted within the Sitecore customer base. Many businesses saw this as an opportunity to upgrade their website whilst also moving to what will eventually become the new normal with the benefits of a cloud platform. The emphasis has been on transitioning to the SaaS based model, or at least acquiring as much knowledge as possible for customers to position themselves for an eventual move to the new platform in the near future.
Composable First — What Is It?
You’ve probably hear the buzzwords ‘Composable Architecture’. Sitecore has adapted it’s platform to move away from the traditional all-in-one module. Sitecore XM Cloud has adopted core composability meaning the concept of the platform is built around flexibility. In layman’s terms, this essentially means ‘use only what you need and none of what you don’t’. It’s all ‘Composable First’. If you want a DAM (Digital Asset Management), fine you can get it. If you want Search, you can get it. If you want Personalization, you can get it. If you don’t want any of them, don’t get any of them. Simple. This approach provides a high degree of scalability which is what your business likely and actually needs.
According to Gartner a company that works with businesses in over a 100 countries, 2024 was the year by which by “70% of large and medium-sized organizations will have composability as a key criteria for new application planning.”
Benefits of Making the Move
What exactly does this mean for your product or your business? You know you’ll be able to grow you business by making the transition to XM Cloud and also likely know that you weren’t using all of the features that were part of the experience platform with Sitecore XP. This is a common problem we encounter here at Fishtank with clients who weren’t really getting the best of their features on Sitecore XP, and now they’re outdated anyway with the features available on XM Cloud. The logical recommendation we provide is to explore what XM Cloud has to offer and see if they can leverage those features to a higher extent than what they were using with Sitecore XP.
But what are the key advantages of moving to Sitecore XM Cloud?
Well, the transition offers several key advantages. A large part of XM Cloud is all about speed and improving your team’s productivity and agility. Firstly, it allows for more scalability and flexibility as your business grows. Secondly, it provides access to state of the art features and regular updates, enabling faster innovation. Lastly, there are no operational tasks or maintenance.
What’s in it For Your Organization:
- Headless - High performance with headless architecture and endless flexibility
- No Upgrades - the traditional upgrade is out the window
- Frequent releases - development releases are going to be much faster than before
- Faster Innovation - constantly make improvements
- No Operation - no infrastructure to manage
- Fast Performance - increased site performance with better Google metric scores
- Scalability - cloud system allows to easily scale up or down based on needs
The Technology Stack
A headless CMS is a game changer for many and if your traditional CMS was already on Sitecore it’s a no brainer to consider Sitecore XM Cloud as your new headless option. In the simplest sense, headless essentially means the content management backend is decoupled from the presentation end.
Aside from that, Sitecore XM Cloud uses a modern, technology stack, which includes the latest tools such as Docker, Storybook, and Next.js. This will allow you to leverage the power of modern cloud tools, and enables developers to leverage a new modern tech stack while giving marketers the flexibility and freedom to design the frontend experience.
Next.js
Next.js enables you to create high-quality web applications with the power of React components. Upgrade your existing Sitecore XP components from MVC to a modern stack driven by XM Cloud & Next.js.
Storybook
Storybook is a frontend workshop for building components and pages. It allows the creation of these items in an isolated environment. It’s essentially an integrated design system where you can build components in isolation.
Tailwind CSS
Tailwind CSS is a CSS framework designed which enables users to create websites faster and easier. You can use utility classes to control the layout, colour, spacing, typography, shadows, and more to create a completely custom component design — without leaving your HTML or writing a single line of custom CSS.
Docker
Docker is a set of platform-as-a-service products that use OS-level virtualization to deliver software in packages called containers. It allows us to have snapshots of a complete development environment and keep multiple development environments in sync.
These are just some of the tools we’re using here at Fishtank. There may be different tools that are right for your product or organization.
So Then, it is the Right Decision?
Well, in short XM Cloud is an appealing choice for many companies, however, you need carefully evaluate the needs of your business and see if they align with the features the platform has to offer and if they are valuable to growth of your organization. For example, upgrading to a new version of Sitecore XP/XM will incur a significant cost without providing any real benefit. Upgrading provides little to no benefit, re-building will provide multiple benefits larger ones being performance and no more upgrades.
However, the transition may not be the best for your business.
These are probably the reasons you would want to consider XM Cloud as the platform to go with:
- If you want to move to a cloud-native SaaS platform
- If you are using an XP version prior to 10.x and aren’t leveraging all the XP features and feel they are being underutilized
- If you want to rebuild your website from scratch, revitalize your main site, and have the option of doing this on a new platform vs legacy Sitecore XP
- If you are planning to redesign/reorganize experience delivery at a large scale
Keep in mind, that a successful transition is not just about adopting new technology, but also about aligning it with your business objectives and strategies.
