Sitecore XM Cloud Benefits

XM Cloud: Sitecore's New Cloud Native, SaaS CMS

There’s a lot of buzz around Sitecore XM Cloud, Sitecore’s recently released cloud native, SaaS CMS. While the name makes it sound like it will be the SaaS version of the same Sitecore XM we all know and love, XM Cloud is actually a completely new, redefined CMS. I recently wrote a blog about Sitecore XM Cloud vs Sitecore XM, where I go over the differences between the two, but in this blog I wanted to focus solely on some of the benefits of XM Cloud.

XM Cloud is all about speed and improving your team’s productivity and agility. It’s set up to be the no compromise CMS, meaning it’s built for both marketers and developers to make their jobs as easy as possible and to shorten your time to market. XM Cloud also makes you more adaptive as you no longer have to plan for upgrades, since new features and capabilities are simply added. Developers are more agile with XM Cloud as they can now take advantage of the best headless CMS attributes, while marketers are empowered through the ability to create pages and experiences without the need for developers.

Sitecore XM Cloud Benefits

• No More Upgrades
• Scalable Infrastructure
• Tech Stack Flexibility
• Improved Site Speed & Performance With Edge Computing
• Global, Fast Content Delivery API
• Modern Headless Architecture For Faster Time To Market
• A Visual Authoring Experience
• Embedded Personalization & Visitor Insights
• Built For Global Collaboration
• Better Dev-Ops Tools

No More Upgrades

Everyone knows software upgrades are a pain. They’re a drain on your resources, they’re time consuming, they’re expensive and they don’t always give you an immediate ROI.

Thanks to its SaaS structure, Sitecore XM Cloud will make upgrades a thing of the past.

Its modern cloud architecture means new features and capabilities will be automatically delivered, and you can say goodbye to the pain of budgeting for, and scheduling upgrades.

XM Cloud will not only reduce your cost of ownership, you’ll also always be on the cutting edge of the most up to date software by delivering continuous updates to your XM Cloud instance without affecting customer experience or interfering with your business.

Scalable Infrastructure

XM Cloud is extremely flexible and scalable in more ways than one. When it comes to infrastructure, with XM Cloud you can sit back and relax. You’ll scale and have your site volume and traffic surges handled automatically, without any need for managing. This means you can free up resources while saving money. XM Cloud is also set up to support global expansions and handle swift changes.

Tech Stack Flexibility

With XM Cloud you’re able to build your tech stack independently with the software that works best for your company. This is thanks to XM Cloud’s composable structure, that allows you to pick and choose the applications that you need, rather than placing them all within the one platform like Sitecore XP. This gives you more flexibility to pick and choose only what your organization needs and save on those that you don’t need.

Improved Site Speed & Performance With Edge Computing

We all know users prefer websites with a great page experience, and one of the most critical factors that influences this is how quickly pages load. A slow site can affect everything from your ability to be found on Google, to having people read and interact with your content, to being able to convert your prospects.

XM Cloud uses edge computing to bring data closer to the source. This reduces bandwidth and improves response time and security. One of the best features of XM Cloud is that you can do this while you’re running personalization, so you no longer have to sacrifice site speed for customer experience. You can have an ultra fast site while also serving personalized content to your users! As a marketer myself, this is huge and will be a game changer for marketers who want an ultra fast site but the ability to run personalized content.

Content delivery in XM Cloud is provided by publishing to the Edge, whether that’s Sitecore Edge or another edge provider. If using Sitecore Edge, content and design information are delivered headlessly through a GraphQL endpoint, and can be consumed by any head technology like Angular, Vue, React, Next.js or ASP.NET core.

Global, Fast Content Delivery API

Page speed is further improved with XM Cloud through the use of global, fast content delivery APIs, that allow developers to create using modern front-end Jamstack technologies like Next.js & Vercel, for fast, modern experiences that they can rapidly deploy.

Site speed has become increasingly important since Google announced their core web vitals, a group of metrics related to site speed, responsiveness and stability that directly impacts your SEO performance. Simply put, if you have a slow site, you’re not going to perform well on Google.

If getting more visitors to your site and converting more leads is important to you, then you should consider XM Cloud. It’s set up to give you perfect page speed scores for web experiences and better performance on search engines like Google, so you can get more visitors to your site and convert them faster too.

Modern Headless Architecture For Faster Time To Market

Being a headless CMS, XM Cloud’s content management backend is decoupled from the presentation delivery. This allows developers to use modern front-end frameworks for faster time to market, while giving marketers the flexibility and freedom to design the frontend experience.

A Visual Authoring Experience

Marketers can instantly create, manage and publish omni-channel experiences thanks to the Pages visual authoring experience. Pages is a WYSIWYG editor inspired by Horizon that makes it easier for marketers to build web pages quickly using drag and drop functionality, and the ability to build components without any development. This improves go-to-market speed, frees up resources and empowers marketers, as they can build websites, landing pages & components without the need for IT involvement. If needed, developers can extend and customize the content authoring experience. Learn more about Sitecore Pages in my What Is Sitecore Pages blog.

Embedded Personalization & Visitor Insights

With XM Cloud marketers also have access to embedded personalization based on Sitecore CDP and Personalize, which allows them to improve engagement & optimize for conversion. Marketers can deliver these relevant and personalized experiences at high speed without having to compromise personalization for site speed. Customers will have a website that loads lightning fast, while also engaging them with relevant experiences based on their needs.

Visitor analytics and insights are embedded in XM Cloud to help marketers get more insights to make better, data-driven decisions that have more business impact.

Built For Global Collaboration

XM Cloud is also built for global collaboration. Global teams can access workflows, data and assets from anywhere in the world, making teams more agile and productive.

Better Dev-Ops Tools

Better dev-ops tools give developers a head start and save your business time and money. These include starter kits, automatic updates, integrated deployments, code scaffolding, built-in automation capabilities and reference implementations.