When Should I Migrate to Sitecore XM Cloud?

For most organizations, the question of adopting composable architecture isn’t a matter of if but a matter of when. How do you know when that time is? We’ll help you figure that out so you can decide if now is the right time to switch to a composable content management system. 

If you’re unfamiliar with Sitecore’s Digital Experience Platform (DXP) products, we’ve posted about some of them before. But I'm going to tell you more about Sitecore Experience Manager Cloud, Sitecore’s SaaS model content management system (CMS), which allows you to adopt composable cloud architecture for your organization. With this post, I'll help you answer the question, “When should I migrate to Sitecore XM Cloud?” 

When is Now Not the Right Time to Adopt Sitecore XM Cloud?

As a previous Sitecore MVP and active member of the Sitecore community, I work with Sitecore customers all the time. So I'm intimately acquainted with the reasons why switching to Sitecore Experience Manager Cloud isn't right for them. Here are some of the reasons why now might not be a good time for your organization to switch to Sitecore XM Cloud. 

• When you have data tenancy concerns
• When you’re using most of Sitecore Experience Platform (XP)'s capabilities
• When you’ve just gone through a recent redesign
• When you’ve recently upgraded
• When you’re not worried about the total cost of ownership (TCO)
• When the cost to migrate to XM Cloud would be too high
• When you’ve already got the talent to upgrade in-house
• When you’re happy with Sitecore XP

When You Have Data Tenancy Concerns

Do you have business requirements to self-host? If you’re in the IT, healthcare, government, legal, financial, or banking industries, then you care about where your data is stored and/or access to the physical systems that store it. Sitecore Experience Manager Cloud might not be right for you. Sitecore Managed Cloud is likely a better fit if you want to maintain control of your data and your company wants to outsource some infrastructure.

When You’re Using Most of Sitecore XP's Capabilities

If your organization is far enough in the maturity model that you’re making the most out of Sitecore XP's functionality, now isn’t a good time to adopt XM Cloud. When you’re fully using XP’s marketing tools, you’ve got personalization firing on nearly every page, and XP is highly integrated into your business processes, so the migration to Sitecore XM Cloud will be more expensive.

When You’ve Just Gone Through a Recent Redesign

If you’ve recently redesigned your site, you probably just spent a sizeable chunk of your marketing budget to do it. You’ve also probably got a great UX and design for your digital experiences and may still be getting used to your new authoring experience as you ramp up content creation. This is especially true if you’re on XP, using those new features, or the site was recently rebuilt with MVC renderings. Because XM Cloud is a headless CMS you would have to rebuild all those components. In this case, you’re better off upgrading your Sitecore environment than choosing Sitecore Experience Manager Cloud. 

When You’ve Recently Upgraded

If you’ve upgraded recently then you should be on a version of Sitecore that supports headless development, or at least JSS. In that case, you might be better off slowly converting to a headless architecture before moving to Sitecore Experience Manager Cloud. This path is likely more cost-effective in the future.

When You’re Not Worried about the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

XM Cloud will lower your total cost of ownership in the long run because it's a SaaS platform, but maybe that’s not a concern. A lot of organizations find Sitecore expensive, but larger organizations may not agree. If maintaining your current Sitecore instance and licenses is barely making a dent in your budget, now might not be the right time to switch to XM Cloud. 

When the Cost to Migrate to a Headless CMS like XM Cloud is Too High

Cost-wise, if the migration to Sitecore XM Cloud is out of reach because the headless CMS architecture would mean rebuilding components from scratch, but an upgrade is affordable, then you’re better off upgrading your Sitecore environment for now and gradually transitioning to a headless CMS and architecture in the future. 

When You’ve Already Got the Talent to Upgrade In-House

If you already have staff with Sitecore development experience who can upgrade your website to the latest version, then you might be better off upgrading. And, if you’ve also got the talent to make use of headless services and to rebuild your website in a headless architecture, then upgrading before converting will be a more cost-effective solution than Sitecore XM Cloud. 

When You’re Happy with Sitecore XP

Sitecore XP is an amazing platform. There are many features that come out of the box and it’s a great CMS. If you’re using these capabilities and happy with the marketing features you have, your existing infrastructure, your TCO, your site performance, and your scalability options, then why change? Maybe Experience Edge and the new content delivery options won't be worth it. Upgrading to the latest Sitecore version is enough, and you don't need Sitecore XM Cloud for your content management.

What are the Signs You Should Migrate Now to Sitecore Experience Manager Cloud?

Now that you know when you shouldn't migrate to XM Cloud, how do you know when the market and time is right to do it? I’ll help you understand when you should migrate your content management to a modern cloud architecture.

• When you need more agility for marketers and developers
• When you need the CMS to be easier to use for content authors
• When your current site or CMS is having performance issues
• When your current site or CMS is having scalability issues
• When you want to save money with a SaaS platform
• When your Ferrari is still sitting in the garage
• When the right Sitecore talent has been hard to find
• If you’re already looking outside the Sitecore product portfolio to replace XM or XP

When You Need More Agility for Marketers and Developers

If your marketers and developers don’t feel like they have the flexibility they need to meet your business needs with XP, now might be the time to migrate to XM Cloud. Your development team will love the technology-agnostic benefits of its modern headless architecture, which lets them use cloud technologies they’re most familiar with. Do your marketers think that Content Editor and Experience Editor are unintuitive? Your marketers will love some of the powerful tools in XM Cloud and see their agility increase as their training costs decrease for content management.

When You Need the CMS to be Easier to Use for Content Authors

Early headless solutions, and even native headless tools and CMSs, struggle with meeting marketers’ editing needs. Almost any editing requires a developer, increasing your time to market (TTM) and decreasing your return on investment (ROI) for content creation. XM Cloud solves this, allowing your marketing users to make edits and even introduce new components without help from your developers through an intuitive WYSIWYG authoring experience.

When Your Current Site or CMS is Having Performance Issues

If you’re having issues with page load times for your customers or your authoring experience has become cumbersome for your marketing users, you should consider migrating to XM Cloud now. The benefits of Experience Edge and new content delivery options will certainly aid you here. Also, if your current implementation no longer meets your organization’s business needs because your commerce, search, user data, personalization, or integration requirements have evolved, now is the time to switch to cloud architecture. 

When Your Current Site or CMS is Having Scalability Issues

If you’re having scalability issues in your current environment and need more elastic hosting to manage traffic surges for your digital experiences, now might be the time to switch to XM Cloud. Or if the tools you're using to support global reach are getting too expensive to maintain or aren’t working well, you should consider XM Cloud. 

When You Want to Save Money with a SaaS Platform

Are you tired of paying for upgrades or trying to create room for them in the budget? Would you rather spend that money on new site capabilities? Have you implemented a separate CDP to use its data for personalization? Are you already using separate search functionality? If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, you’re paying for XP capabilities you don’t need and don’t have to worry about with XM Cloud. Even if you didn't answer yes to those questions, Sitecore XM Cloud will still likely be saving you money in the long run being a SaaS platform.

When Your Ferrari is Still Sitting in the Garage

Sitecore XP is an incredibly feature-rich platform but are you using all its features? Have you ever opened the Marketing Automation module? Are you personalizing content for your customers through XP? Have you used Path Analyzer for user journey insights or looked at other Sitecore analytics? If you answered “No,” to these questions, you have the equivalent to a Ferrari that’s just sitting in your garage. XM Cloud is the kind of car your organization will actually drive.

When the Right Sitecore Talent Has Been Hard to Find

If you’ve been struggling to find developers with Sitecore experience, .NET developers, those familiar with headless services, or other people with the skills to support your websites, switching to modern frontend frameworks and XM Cloud development will give you more recruitment options.

If You’re Already Looking Outside the Sitecore Product Portfolio to Replace XM or XP

If you’re wondering if Sitecore is still the right fit, you might be better served by a composable DXP. By moving to composable with XM Cloud you can replace the parts of your technology stack that XP was filling with best-of-breed solutions instead, of building your dream technology stack.

To Switch or Not to Switch to XM Cloud?

For most organizations, it’s only a matter of time before they adopt composable architecture to manage their websites and digital experiences. As far as Velir is concerned the only question you should be asking yourself is, “Is now the right time for our organization?”

There are plenty of reasons why it’s not the right time to migrate to XM Cloud: when you have data tenancy concerns, you’re using most of Sitecore XP’s features, you’ve recently redesigned or upgraded your site, the cost of ownership is not a problem for your organization, you don’t have the funds to migrate, your talent can just upgrade your Sitecore, or most importantly, you’re happy with Sitecore XP. However, if you need more agility to support your teams, an easier-to-use CMS for your authors to create content, improved performance and scalability to manage your CMS or website, you need to save money, you don’t have the right talent, you’re wasting Sitecore features, or you’re already thinking about moving away from Experience Manager or Experience Platform, now is the time to switch to XM Cloud.

If you’ve read this post and you’re still not sure whether you should make the switch to Sitecore Experience Manager Cloud, reach out to Velir. A Sitecore MVP can walk you through the benefits of XM Cloud and help you weigh your options. Or if you’ve seen everything you need to and you’re ready to migrate to XM Cloud, we can support you with that too.