AEM as a Cloud Service: The Benefits of AEM in the Cloud

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) as a Cloud Service is a cloud-native offering of the AEM platform. Enterprises can take full advantage of the personalized content-driven experiences they’re used to creating with the on-premises version of AEM and enjoy the full benefits of the cloud.

In this article, we’ll explain more about AEM as a cloud service and what organizations can gain from the combination of AEM and the cloud.

What Is AEM as a Cloud Service?

Adobe unveiled Adobe Experience Manager as a Cloud Service in January 2020 as part of the Adobe Experience Cloud. A cloud-native solution for managing digital experiences, AEM as a Cloud Service provides the features marketers and developers need and offers enterprise SaaS-like agility.

The AEM platform has long been available on-premises or as a managed service. Still, AEM as a Cloud Service brings new approaches in architecture, upgrades, onboarding, developing, operations and performance, and more.

Architecture

AEM as a Cloud Service is built on a dynamic architecture with a variable number of AEM images. It scales based on actual traffic and activity, includes individual instances that run only when needed, leverages modular applications, and enables autoscaling.

Updates

Continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) are used to ensure that projects use the most current version. Maintenance updates can be released daily and include bug fixes and security updates. Meanwhile, new feature updates are released on a predictable monthly schedule.

Cloud Manager

Adobe Cloud Manager controls all updates to Adobe instances. Updates are triggered when a new version of the cloud service is available or using the pipelines included by Cloud Manager. AEM programs and environments are managed by Cloud Manager, which also acts as a single entry point for operations and development staff. Cloud Manager is a self-service portal where AEM as a Cloud Service’s main components can be created and configured.

Onboarding

When using AEM as a Cloud Service, baseline AEM images are optimized for certain use cases and manual configuration tasks are made redundant. An assessment phase is also included to ensure that prerequisites, such as legal and contractual requirements, technical and deployment requirements, such as code updates and content migration, have been met.

Identity Management

AEM as a Cloud Service fully integrates Adobe IDs for accessing the author tier, which requires using the Adobe Admin console to manage users and groups. Adobe Identity Management System (IMS) provides single-sign-on access across all Adobe cloud apps.

AEM as a Cloud Service Features

Some of the features that make AEM as a Cloud Service an ideal option for customers include:

• DevOps With Cloud Manager: Adobe Cloud Manager enables enterprises to scale their DevOps efforts and provides autoscaling, flexible deployment modes, service delivery transparency, and more.

• Application Automation: Developers can automate certain application development practices.

• Built-in CDN: A built-in Content Delivery Network enables content to be delivered quickly and efficiently at scale.

• Dynamic Architecture: Autoscaling to remove infrastructure worries for developers.

• Automated Testing: Scans for common vulnerabilities to remain aware of threats and mitigate risks.

• Deep Adobe Integration: AEM as a Cloud Service’s closeness to Adobe Experience Cloud enables improved customer experiences as well as the ability to leverage other Adobe tools such as analytics and online marketing products.

What Makes Adobe Experience Manager’s Cloud Service Worth It For Enterprises

AEM as a Cloud service includes numerous benefits, making it an ideal choice for enterprises seeking a cloud-native DXP.

Fewer Manual Tasks

Manual tasks in configuration and infrastructure maintenance can be reduced for system administrators as AEM handles those tasks.

Always-On and Current

The service architecture has been revamped entirely to prevent disruptions in content management and delivery, ensuring uninterrupted service for end-users. Also, by implementing a new continuous delivery pipeline for the AEM codebase, AEM as a Cloud Service offers automated updates multiple times a month, ensuring that you stay updated with the latest version.

Scalability

AEM as a Cloud Service guarantees equal instance creation, enabling automatic scaling of the service architecture up or down based on your specific requirements.

Continuous Evolution

AEM as a Cloud Service is continually evolving, driven by the projects undertaken by its customers. The platform’s content, code, and configurations are regularly reviewed and evaluated against best practices, providing valuable insights to help customers achieve their business goals.

Maximizing AEM’s Cloud and Composable Capabilities With Oshyn

Moving to the cloud can provide modern enterprises with increased flexibility as employees can access resources from anywhere. The cloud also helps to reduce the costs of on-premises hosting and maintenance while offering more scalability to add or remove resources as necessary.

With AEM as a Cloud Service, leading brands can onboard and access AEM within minutes, allowing them to go live with new content campaigns in a few days or weeks instead of months. Leveraging cloud architecture in this way also enables businesses to embrace composability and thus prepare themselves for easier transitions and a smoother adaptation period if changes need to be made to keep up with customer demands or new technologies.

However, the rate of change in the digital experience space is already swift, meaning that enterprises need the right support to help steer them to the best tools and approaches for their unique business needs.

Oshyn is a digital agency and Adobe partner with decades of experience working with leading digital experience platforms such as Sitecore and Optimizely. Our expertise can help guide your business in the right direction when it comes to understanding the world of headless CMSs, composable DXPs, and the like. We can also help you get the most out of AEM as a Cloud Service to gain SaaS-like agility while maintaining the power of AEM.

Still figuring out which DXP is the right one for you? Take a look at Sitecore vs. Adobe Experience Manager to help you decide.