The future is now: Migrating to XM Cloud
A presentation at SUG Chennai 2023-07-27 in in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India by Jason St-Cyr
The future is now: Migrating to XM Cloud
Today’s speaker
Jason St-Cyr Director, Developer Relations, Sitecore
- 4-time Sitecore MVP
- 6 years as a partner, 6 years at Sitecore
- My kids love Bluey and Doc McStuffins. D&D nerd and music lover
- What I believe: Be Honest. Be Kind. Be Helpful.
Socials
- LinkedIn: /in/jasonstcyr
- Mastodon: @jasonstcyr@mstdn.ca
- Website: jasonstcyr.com
The plan for today
- 🦄 What’s different about XM Cloud?
- 💡 Should you migrate?
- 👨🏫 Scenarios
- XM Jamstack
- Classic MVC
- Marketing / Email Automation
- XP “Global Brand”
- 🔎 Things to look for
- 🙋♀️ Resources and Q&A
Sitecore User Group Conference – SUGCON India 2023
The Grand New Delhi
Thursday 24 August – Friday 25 August
- 200+ attendees
- Gain knowledge and get inspired
- Community speakers and Sitecore product teams
- Beginner and advanced level topics and presentations
- More information: india.sugcon.events
What’s different about XM Cloud
Why choose XM Cloud?
Only on XM Cloud
Should you migrate?
“IT DEPENDS.”
Common profiles for XM Cloud migration
- The Early Adopter
- The Maintainer
- The Modernizer
Common profiles for XM Cloud migration: The Early Adopter
- Already builds headless architectures
- Uses cloud-native “best-of-fit” solutions
- Needs to align Sitecore solutions with composable strategy in their stack
Common profiles for XM Cloud migration: The Maintainer
- Keeps up to date on Sitecore XM/XP
- Likely on an older non-headless architecture
- Wants to transition to a SaaS platform and stop owning application upgrades
Common profiles for XM Cloud migration: The Modernizer
- On an older version of Sitecore XM/XP
- A long time since investment in their current site • Concerned about application End of Life
- Wants to reduce steps needed to modernize
Scenarios
Scenario 1: XM “Jamstack”
A team is keeping up with the latest and greatest, and are excited to move to a Composable option and never upgrade again.
XM Jamstack: The Migration Plan
- Step 1: Migrate solution to XM Cloud
- Step 2: Launch XM Cloud and retire existing
What does the solution look like?
Jamstack in XM Cloud
Scenario 2: Classic MVC
A simple personalization solution built on Sitecore MVC renderings
Classic MVC: The Migration Plan
- Step 1: Migrate content to XM Cloud
- Step 2: Build new design on XM Cloud
- Step 3: Launch XM Cloud and retire existing
- Step 4: Implement personalization
What does the solution look like?
Step 1: Migrate content to XM Cloud
Step 2: Implement new design on XM Cloud
Step 3: Switch XM Cloud to production
Step 4: Implement personalization variants
Scenario 3: Marketing / Email Automation
Audience engagement is key for this team and they use EXM and Marketing Automation to reach their customers.
Marketing / Email Automation: The Migration Plan
- Step 1: Start tracking with Personalize
- Step 2: Migrate to Send/Personalize
- Step 3: Go to the Edge and headless
- Step 4: Migrate to XM Cloud
- Step 5: Launch XM Cloud and retire XM
What does the solution look like?
Step 1: Track with Personalize
Step 2: Migrate EXM and Marketing Automation to Send
Step 3: Migrate to Personalize and transition to Sitecore XM
Step 4: Go to the Edge and Migrate to Next.js JSS
Step 5: Migrate to XM Cloud
Scenario 4: XP “Global Brand”
All around the world teams are working together on hundreds of sites with multiple production solutions and technologies.
Global Brand: The Migration Plan
- Step 1: Start tracking with Personalize
- Step 2: Go to the Edge and headless
- Step 3: Transition to XM and retire XP
- Step 4: Fully adopt Next.js JSS
- Step 5: Launch XM Cloud and retire XM
What does the solution look like?
Step 1: Track with Personalize
Step 2: Go to the Edge
Step 3: Transition to XM
Step 4: Migrate to Next.js JSS
Step 5: Migrate to XM Cloud
Things to look for
Content migration
Content migration is never “trivial”
- Sitecore Content Serialization can help move content to XM Cloud
- More tools on the way to help with content migration
- Most current content models should be compatible
- Gradual migration could mean multiple content migrations (XP ➡ XM, XM ➡ XM Cloud)
Not all customizations are compatible
XM Cloud and Edge are different from Content Delivery instances
- Customizations for pipelines running on Content Delivery are likely not compatible
- Solve in a headless way on your head • Modules for Content Delivery instance will not execute on requests
- No XP features, so XP modules will not work on XM Cloud
Recommendation: analyze and remove Content Delivery customizations and modules.
.NET or Next.js ?
Some things are easier with Next.js
- XM Cloud Embedded Personalization and the Engage SDK were built specifically for Next.js. Need to capture page view events directly using the SDK.
- Documentation, content, examples mostly focus on Next.js
Some things are easier with .NET
- Existing .NET Core Headless can transition easier than a rewrite to Next.js
- Teams with mostly .NET developers may find it easier to build in .NET and fill the holes than ramp up on skills
XM Cloud or Personalize?
XM Cloud has personalization and analytics built in, but is it enough?
- Do customers need historical personalization beyond 30 days?
- Custom rules?
- Integration to external data systems?
- Identity resolution? Pattern cards?
- More than 8 page variants / 5 conditions?
Know the limits of XM Cloud when migrating an existing solution!
Is it in the 30%?
Migrating to Personalize
Personalize is not XP
- Requires digital strategy to figure out how to achieve the same business goals
- xDB data migration may not have a good ROI in all cases, especially if xDB was not system of record
- Identify which data is critical to move and only move that data
- Does early tracking get enough data to skip xDB migration?
Migrating to Personalize
Two systems of personalization
- Gradual migration means running Personalize and XP at the same time
- More complex data reporting
- Confusion debugging personalization from two sources
- Try to migrate full sections or sites to avoid having XP and Personalize conflicting.
Is static publishing a shortcut?
SSG without rebuilding MVC/SXA
- Starting with Sitecore XP 10.2 SSG publishing
- Smaller lift to get better core vitals
- Not all sites are a fit
- Best fit for content-only simple sites that need a quick initial move
- Might require an upgrade if on an older Sitecore XM/XP version
Best bet is running fully headless to prep for XM Cloud
Migrating EXM to Send
###EXM is not Send
- Different vision on solving email automation.
- Not a migration, full replacement
- No import of templates
- Can migrate some data like contact lists
- Send personalization can tailor messages, so can EXM, but they are done differently
- Website or other channels likely need updates to trigger Send APIs instead
- Send has no xDB, need to integrate to your source of truth for customer data
Migrating EXM to Send
Where is the complexity?
- Content Delivery or XP/EXM Dispatch?
- Tackle the infrastructure complexity first
- Complex global CD infrastructure?
- Target move to headless and static first
- Then reduce down XP and EXM
Remember to warmup your new email service!
Some helpful resources
Migration to Sitecore Composable DXP landing page
Collection of articles and tools that guide help customer start with their migration.
Content published:
- 4 customer scenarios
- Example repository
- Article series documenting our journey of migrating the MVP site
- Details on migrating to CDP and Personalize
- Article series on migrating from XC to Order Cloud
MODERN SAAS RELEASE NOTES
Changelog features 6 products!
- Latest changes from XM Cloud, Content Hub ONE, Search, Discover, Personalize, and CDP
- Powered by Content Hub ONE
- RSS and Atom feeds for audience notification
FEDERATED SEARCH ACROSS 10+ SOURCES
Search available now!
- Sitecore Search example implementation on the Sitecore Developer Portal * Sources include YouTube, GitHub, multiple documentation sites, forums, and Stack Exchange
- Suggested Searches allow users to quickly jump to relevant articles
Questions? Thoughts?
Thank you
Socials
- LinkedIn: /in/jasonstcyr
- Mastodon: @jasonstcyr@mstdn.ca
- Website: jasonstcyr.com
Customers and Parnters alike have been trying to make sense of what their path forward looks like in the new Sitecore SaaS Composable DXP world. For customers that are on Sitecore XM/XP, how do they determine a path to XM Cloud?
for free. You
can too.
Video
Resources
The following resources were mentioned during the presentation or are useful additional information.
Buzz and feedback
Here’s what was said about this presentation on social media.
