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Amrit Raj

Managing Partner & Sitecore MVP

XM Cloud 101

Introduction

Sitecore Experience Manager Cloud (XM Cloud) is Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) content management system from Sitecore. XM Cloud was launched at the Sitecore Symposium this year. In this blog, my goal is to provide basic concepts around XM Cloud.

XM Cloud Basics

  • XM Cloud is based on the core Sitecore CMS also known as Sitecore XM or Sitecore Experience Manager
  • XM Cloud is SaaS – Sitecore provides hosting, management, maintenance and upgrades. Internally, Sitecore XM Cloud runs on containers.
  •  XM Cloud is integrated into the Sitecore Cloud Portal, which will be the central location to access and manage all Sitecore apps – XM Cloud, Content Hub One, XM Cloud Deploy App, User Management, etc.
  • XM Cloud provides headless CMS capabilities:
    • Sitecore Headless Services
    • Sitecore Experience Edge
    • Headless SXA as an accelerator
  • XM Cloud can also be deployed as a traditional web delivery
  • XM Cloud provides multiple editing capabilities:
    • Experience Editor (same as Sitecore 10.x)
    • Content Editor (same as Sitecore 10.x)
    • Pages and Components (new)
  • XM Cloud includes Analytics, similar to analytics provided in Sitecore 10 but with a new UI
    • Site Analytics
    • Page Analytics
  • XM Cloud includes Personalization. Each component can have multiple variants and can be personalized based on the audience segment. This is like Rules Engine in Sitecore 10.

XM Cloud Building Blocks

  • Sites: Allows users to view a list of websites, open a website in Pages or Explorer or create a new website
  • Tools: Allows users to access multiple tools and areas including Pages, Components, Experience Editor (yes both Experience Editor and Content Editor are currently available in XM Cloud), Media Library, PowerShell, Access Management, etc.
  • Explorer: Allows users to navigate the entire website tree including pages, media, data, dictionaries, presentations, and settings.
  • Pages: Allows users to create and manage website pages. Website pages are displayed in a tree structure. For a page, users can
    • View/edit the page
    • Add/edit components
    • Personalize
    • Analyze
  • Content Manager: Content allows users to manage content independent of presentation. Content is organized in a familiar content tree structure. Content can be translated and versioned.
  • Components: Allows users to create collections and components from scratch including a component builder interface.