Should you change from Sitecore XP to Sitecore XM Cloud?
Reading time: 3 min
The question of whether you should change from Sitecore XP to XM Cloud is not an easy one to answer. For this reason, Andreas Kölle, Unit Lead DXP (Digital Experience Platform) Development and partner manager created this small decisioning guide for you.
When it comes to the decision whether you should change from Sitecore XP to Sitecore XM Cloud, one of the first questions you should ask: “Is SaaS and headless the way for us?” Here is a small comparison you should think about:
Traditional Platform
- Business requirement to self-host
- Scaling by default is not a requirement or priority
- One team handles everything
- Want/Need a single and integrated tool
- Willing to fit business requirements to features of platform
- They are happy with their existing platform choice
Composable
- Need highly (global) scalable solution
- Remove overhead of hosting and upgrades
- Wish to integrate with their existing marketing stack
- Use of best-of-breed tools to solve the differing business issues
- Need technology and vendor freedom
After these considerations, you should take stock of which features you are using after this step. Find suitable composable replacements and reduce costs. There are some basic knockout criteria or considerations that you should be aware of, so here are some examples:
You should stay on Sitecore XP as it is:
- if you are a new XP customer (10.x) and you are still in maintenance periods;
- if you are using XP functionality beyond content management;
- if your organization has on-prem requirements or longer-term commitments.
You should stay on XP and add Personalize and CDP:
- if your organization is looking to expand customer data use across channels;
- if you are looking to augment/expand current personalization and testing efforts.
You should migrate to XM Cloud now (add Personalize/CDP as needed):
- if you are not managing XP investment;
- if you plan to redesign and moderize experience delivery at scale.
If all these facts are not helpful for you or did not answer the question “should I migrate to XM Cloud”, let me try to summarize a little bit.
If you are already on XP 10.x it is a good base to start, Sitecore XP 10.x has the same core as XM Cloud. If not, think about an update to prepare for the next steps. If you do not plan to update to 10.x, stay on XP/Managed Cloud Standard or Premium. So XP 10.x is the base to start!
The next point you should think about is if your frontend is written in a modern frontend framework like React, Vue, Angular, NextJS (or others), in a nutshell, are you in headless mode? If not, and if you have not planned to do this, the answer is also to stay on XP/Managed Cloud Standard or Premium. There are 2 or 3 requirements that should be met, or be willing to be met, before migrating to XM Cloud.
Conclusion
On the one hand, you should have your Sitecore instance on a 10.x version and ideally you should already have set the architecture to a headless basis with one of the modern frontend frameworks. Then it becomes very easy to migrate content via serialization. If you are still using classic MVC as an example and you are not planning a relaunch, stay on your XP installation for long as possible.
Do you need support with the transition from Sitecore XP to Sitecore XM Cloud? Our experts look forward to your request.
