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Sitecore XP: Maximizing Your Long-Term Investment (Forever XP)
A plan for the present and future with Sitecore.
Welcome to the Club: Forever XP
So, you've been on Sitecore Experience Platform (XP) for a while now. Maybe "a while" means a few years, or perhaps you're one of the seasoned veterans who've been leveraging its power for over a decade. You're in good company. Determining the perfect moment to move on from a platform as robust as Sitecore XP is a complex decision, one that depends on a whole host of factors aligning just right.
At Fishtank, we've seen many organizations in this exact spot. There are some common, and perfectly valid, reasons why you might still be on Sitecore XP:
- It just works: Plain and simple, the platform is meeting your current business needs and delivering results.
- Investment Protection: You've poured significant resources into building out your XP instance, and you're keen to maximize that return on investment before considering a major shift.
- Path Forward Unclear: You recognize that change is inevitable, but the "what's next?" and "how do we get there?" questions are still a bit fuzzy.
- SaaS Hesitancy: Your organization might have reservations or specific concerns about moving to a fully SaaS-based solution just yet.
We lovingly refer to long-term, happy (or unhappy) XP customer as "Forever XP" customers. A slightly tongue in cheek nod to their commitment and the platform's enduring nature. We even made "Forever XP" chocolate bars, playing off our Sitecore Snack newsletter.
If “Forever XP” is hitting home, this guide is for you. Whether you're planning to stay on XP for the foreseeable future or strategically preparing for an eventual migration to something like Sitecore XM Cloud, our goal here is to:
- Break down actionable strategies to squeeze every last drop of value from your current Sitecore XP investment.
- Help position your organization strategically for whatever comes next, especially a potential future transition to Sitecore XM Cloud (XMC).
So let's go.
The Current State of Sitecore: Where Do You Fit in?
In our experience, Sitecore XP customers generally fall into one of four categories:
- Happy Users: Content with their current setup and successfully using the platform as is.
- Ambitious Users: Have big plans and feel they haven't quite tapped into everything XP has to offer.
- Planning Migration: Actively strategizing their move to Sitecore XM Cloud.
- Already Migrated: Have successfully made the leap to XMC.
The majority of Sitecore customers are still on Sitecore XP or its content management-focused sibling, Sitecore XM. Many organizations are waiting for that "right strategic moment" to transition to XMC. If you're feeling like you're on XP longer than you initially thought, do not fear, there's still a considerable opportunity to optimize and innovate. (And if you are building the business case for an XM Cloud migration, our on-demand webinar on Sitecore XM Cloud benefits is a great resource.)
Challenges You May Face Staying On Sitecore XP
While XP is powerful, sticking with it long-term isn't without its hurdles.
- Ongoing Platform Maintenance: You've got to invest in regular upgrade projects. Staying current is important for security and support, but these upgrade cycles require dedicated resources, planning, time, money, etc.
- Development Speed & Technology Limitations: If your sites are built on older ASP.NET frameworks, you might find development cycles are slower than you'd like, especially compared to modern front-end stacks. This legacy tech can hinder rapid feature deployment.
- Infrastructure Management Overhead: Even with cloud hosting on Azure, you're still on the hook for managing your infrastructure. This means security monitoring, performance optimization, scaling for traffic spikes, and troubleshooting issues. It can be a time sink.
- Performance Challenges & Resolution Complexity: Performance issues aren't inherent to XP, but when they crop up, they can be tricky to diagnose and solve. The complexity often depends on how the site was originally built and your specific infrastructure setup. It requires true expertise to address these.
- Underutilized Advanced Marketing Capabilities: This is a common, big one. Many organizations invested in XP for its rich marketing features (personas, personalization, marketing automation, goals, engagement scoring, etc) but struggle to fully leverage them. It can feel like you're paying for horsepower you're not using. The problem is, very, very few organizations have the operational capacity to truly make use of all of XP's advanced capabilities in an on-going way.
- Developer Talent Acquisition & Retention: Hiring developers wanting to work on older .NET technologies can be tough. You also risk losing existing talent who want to upskill with more modern stacks. .NET WebForms and MVC sites, in particular, can be a hard sell for career-minded developers.
- Content Authoring & User Experience Challenges: Depending on the modules you have or haven’t installed (SXA?) and the site’s architecture, this can sometimes lead to a clunky authoring experience. If your content team feels hamstrung, their productivity and satisfaction will suffer. Luckily this can always be improved.
So these are challenges that might sound familiar, but there may be tangible things we can do to get the most of out XP.
A Visual Look at Getting The Most Out of Sitecore XP
It’s difficult to feel like I wrote a decent article without making at least one chart or diagram, so here it is:
Items in gold can be implemented regardless of Sitecore version. Items in white are on a path of Sitecore modernization & headless development that contribute greatly to XM Cloud readiness, but not beneficial if you’re staying on traditional MVC-based architecture.
And a quick reminder - please connect with us, and we can create roadmap to help your organization navigate all of this.
Optimize Your Infrastructure: The Unsung Hero of XP Value
This is huge. I'd estimate that approximately 90% of Sitecore environments are not optimally configured for performance and cost efficiency. This isn't a knock on anyone; but what you do to optimize environments in Azure has evolved, and your Sitecore experts are probably not infrastructure experts (and vice versa). This means there's usually massive opportunity for improvement, even in environments that seem "fine."
90% of Sitecore environments are not optimally configured for performance and cost efficiency
There are two key areas for optimizations in Azure:
- App Services: Fine-tuning processing performance, memory allocation, and cost-effectiveness.
- Databases: Leveraging intelligent pooling and modern, cost-effective options.
The potential cost savings here are substantial. We typically see organizations saving $40,000 to $100,000 annually per environment as part of an engagement with us. If you're committed to multiple years on XP, these savings can easily run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. These aren't just aspirational figures; they're real, achievable reductions.
What can you do with these savings?
- Reinvest in Performance: Use the saved budget for additional infrastructure to further boost site speed.
- Capital Reallocation: Redirect funds to other strategic projects and initiatives.
If you're planning to stay on Sitecore XP for several more years, infrastructure optimization should be your number one priority. The financial impact alone makes it a high-ROI initiative.
Want to dive deeper? We've got an on-demand webinar that walks you through it: Slash Your Sitecore XP Azure Bill.
Upgrade to Sitecore 10.4 or Higher: Unlock Modern Capabilities
If you're running a Sitecore XP version below 10.3, upgrading to the latest version (Sitecore 10.4 as of this writing, with 10.5 on the horizon) is a critical recommendation.
This upgrade unlocks access to two very impactful modules:
- SXA (Sitecore Experience Accelerator): A framework and component set for accelerated development.
- Sitecore Headless Services: Enables modern headless and hybrid development approaches.
Crucially, as of version 10.3, SXA includes proper support for headless services. This combination is potent. It allows you to:
- Build more modern-feeling websites.
- Achieve faster development cycles.
- Create websites that are significantly easier to maintain.
- Improve the developer experience and productivity.
Install the Sitecore Experience Accelerator (SXA) Module
Once you're on a compatible Sitecore version, installing SXA offers two major benefits:
- Standardized Site Structure and Configuration: SXA brings an elegant way to manage site-specific configurations without custom code. It excels at multi-site and multi-tenant architectures, making it easier to share components and resources.
- Enhanced Page Authoring Capabilities: This is where content teams will bust out the 👏🏼 emoji on Teams.
- Drag-and-Drop Components: Super-fast page building.
- Component Variants: Authors can switch between different versions of components without needing a developer.
- Page Branches and Designs: Content authors can even create their own new page templates, reducing developer dependency.
Perhaps most importantly for the long view, sites built using SXA align architecturally with Sitecore XM Cloud. This positions you for a much smoother migration down the line.
Important Note: SXA is for building new sites or new sections. Installing the module doesn't magically convert your existing legacy pages. Those would need to be rebuilt or migrated to take advantage of SXA.
Install Sitecore Headless Services: Embrace Modern Development
Sitecore Headless Services is your gateway to headless architecture. It transforms your CMS into a content repository that any application can query and consume data from.
This means your development team can use cutting-edge web platforms like Next.js and React to build your websites. You're moving from potentially legacy tech to the forefront of modern web development.
We’ve seen 30% increase in productivity when using headless services
The benefits are significant:
- Development Speed & Productivity: We've seen development teams achieve at least a 30% increase in productivity when using headless services with Next.js. Cycles are just much quicker.
- Website Performance: Headless websites built with Next.js are noticeably faster for end-users. This is a huge win for user experience.
- Developer Experience: Working with modern tools attracts and retains talent. Developers can leverage their skills in popular frameworks.
Add Experience Edge: Supercharge Your Headless Content Delivery
If you've gone headless, Experience Edge is the next logical step for high-performance content delivery. It can only be used on headless sites - that is sites using Sitecore Headless Services.
What does it do? Experience Edge provides a globally scaled content layer that your headless websites access to retrieve content. It essentially replaces the traditional content delivery (CD) servers in your Sitecore architecture for your headless sites.
Traditional CD vs. Experience Edge:
- Traditional: Your CD server handles data delivery. It can get overwhelmed and requires horizontal scaling (adding more CD servers).
- Experience Edge: Native global scaling. Serverless. It's designed from the ground up for high-performance, worldwide content delivery.
Benefits:
- Performance & Scaling: Delivers content incredibly fast, globally, by design.
- Cost & Operational Advantages: Can lead to direct cost savings by reducing or eliminating traditional CD server infrastructure and the overhead of managing it.
- Strategic XM Cloud Alignment: Sitecore XM Cloud leverages Experience Edge. Building for Experience Edge now makes your organization more XM Cloud-ready.
An important licensing note - Experience Edge is a separate product that must be purchased from Sitecore when used outside of XM Cloud. Ask your Sitecore rep.
Adopt Vercel: The Fast Lane for Your Front-End
Once you're leveraging Sitecore Headless Services, consider adding Vercel to your technology stack. Vercel is a platform for front-end frameworks and static sites, built to integrate with your newly headless Sitecore instance. At Fishtank, 95% of our customers ultimately end up using their enterprise tier of Vercel for one reason or another. We use also use Vercel ourselves.
So what are the tangible benefits?
- Development & Deployment Speed: Vercel significantly accelerates website development, shipping, and deployment. It's just faster.
- Advanced Infrastructure: Provides globally scaled infrastructure with built-in features that enhance performance and reliability (think automatic rollbacks, preview deployments, analytics).
- Transformational Impact: This isn't just an incremental improvement; it can fundamentally change how you build and deploy web experiences.
- Universal Platform Potential: Vercel can host and deliver all your websites and applications, not just Sitecore-based ones. This helps consolidate infrastructure and enables faster development across the board.
- Team Collaboration & Transparency: Increases visibility into development work and makes it easier for internal teams to collaborate.
Vercel helps organizations move faster and be more agile. It’s a powerful addition to a modern headless Sitecore setup.
Modernize Deployments: Smoother, Faster, Better
Modernizing your deployment process is a key strategy to help your organization move faster and achieve more. Let's look at two key technologies:
- Sitecore CLI (Command Line Interface):
- Functionality: A command-based tool that allows you to serialize Sitecore items (content, templates, renderings, etc.) to files and vice-versa without needing additional application or license.
- The Legacy Alternative: Many organizations use Sitecore packages or TDS (Team Development for Sitecore) for item synchronization.
- Recommendation: Transition to Sitecore CLI. It's the modern approach and aligns with how item management is handled in XM Cloud.
- IAR (Items as Resources):
- Concept: Instead of deploying items directly into databases during a release, IAR uses resource files.
- Technical Process: Sitecore CLI creates these IAR files (which are in Google Protocol Buffers format).
- Deployment: These IAR files are added to a directory in your deployment package. Sitecore automatically merges them into your database as a new foundational layer.
- Benefits: Significantly reduces the moving pieces in your deployments, simplifies the process, and reduces the overall technology stack required.
Modernizing deployments streamlines workflows, reduces manual intervention, and creates more reliable processes.
Add Cloudflare: Your Website's Best Friend
Cloudflare is an incredibly strategic piece of technology that works exceptionally well as a front-facing layer for traditional Sitecore sites (and modern ones too!). While widely known for security, its performance and speed benefits are equally compelling.
We've seen incredible gains in performance and cost savings by leveraging Cloudflare
We've seen incredible gains in performance and cost savings by leveraging Cloudflare with Sitecore (check out our Azure cost savings webinar for documented proof).
Cloudflare offers:
- Edge Caching: Deliver your website from over 200 points-of-presence globally, drastically reducing the traffic to your Azure instance, while increase performance.
- Edge Workers: Serverless compute at the edge.
- Waiting Rooms: Manage traffic during high-demand periods.
- Asset Optimization: Automatic optimization of images, CSS, JavaScript.
- AI Features: Machine learning-powered enhancements.
By sitting between your users and your web server, Cloudflare adds a powerful value layer without requiring changes to your core infrastructure. It can dramatically transform slow or struggling sites into high-performing, reliable experiences. If you feel like your site is struggling with performance, Cloudflare can be a lifesaver.
Tackling Personalization & Marketing Optimization: A Realistic Approach
Many XP customers want to maximize Sitecore's marketing features, and there are certainly legitimate use cases. However, you need to be realistic about the scale, complexity, and team expertise required.
The Challenge - Ideally, your entire marketing team (those responsible for personas, KPIs, campaigns, automation flows, emails) would be expert Sitecore users. The common reality? Often, it's only the core web team that uses Sitecore daily. Marketing teams might not be familiar with Sitecore's tools because their day-to-day work doesn't live there.
Recommended Approach: High-Value, Low-Investment Focus on initiatives that provide maximum impact with minimal complexity.
- Goals-Based Personalization (Recommended):
- Set up goals within your Sitecore site (e.g., "Downloaded Whitepaper," "Requested Demo").
- Trigger personalization based on users achieving these goals.
- This is more tangible because it's tied to specific user actions that indicate intent and conversion potential.
- Personas Approach (Often Less Effective for Many):
- Configuring personas and applying profile card scoring to content.
- The challenge: Simply knowing a user fits a persona often lacks intrinsic value. You still need to define what action you want that persona to take.
- Users might not be at the most convertible part of the funnel when persona-based personalization triggers.
Alternative Personalization Strategies to Consider:
- AI-Powered Solutions: Invest in AI tools to deliver personalized experiences (more on this next).
- Novel Components: Create custom components or interfaces that guide user journeys based on simpler logic.
- Third-Party Tools: Specialized personalization platforms outside of Sitecore.
- Sitecore Personalize (Product Option): This is Sitecore's standalone SaaS personalization tool. It can be invested in separately and works exceptionally well with high-performance optimizations like Cloudflare. It can also be integrated into new builds using Sitecore XM Cloud.
The key is to evaluate your goals. How critical is deep personalization to your success right now? Always consider alternatives before diving deep into complex Sitecore XP marketing feature implementations. We've written extensively about XP personalization vs. XM Cloud vs. Personalize if you want to explore further.
Add Some AI: Modernize Without a Full Rebuild
Fishtank is heavily involved in the AI space, and we know adding generative AI features to your website is an effective way to keep it relevant and competitive.
AI feature implementation is not limited by older Sitecore technology
The good news? AI feature implementation is not necessarily limited by older Sitecore technology stacks. You can add modern AI capabilities regardless of your current Sitecore XP version or architecture. Ensure you’re focusing client-side experiences (JavaScript-based) for your websites rather than server-side (Microsoft .NET based).
Fishtank's AI platform capabilities include:
- Personalization at scale
- Knowledge chats (intelligent chatbots)
- Gated content features
- Content creation assistance
- And other value-adds
AI provides significant value, especially for websites where content is impactful to the user experience. Even if your site is on an older Sitecore stack, AI can serve as a bridge technology, creating very modern user experiences without a full platform migration.
Scaling Down To XM: A Potential Cost-Saving Move
If you're truly not using (and don't plan to use) the advanced multi-visit marketing features of Sitecore XP (like xDB, marketing automation across multiple in-session, etc.), then scaling down to Sitecore XM (Experience Manager) might be a smart move.
Sitecore XM vs. XP:
- Same Core Platform: XM uses the same Sitecore version (e.g., 10.4) as XP.
- Removed Features: XM doesn't include the persistent, multiple-visit marketing database (xDB) or the associated long-term user identification and tracking features.
- Personalization Scope: XM still has personalization capabilities, but they are limited to in-session personalization (what the user does during their current visit).
Benefits of Moving from XP to XM:
- Simplified Infrastructure: Significantly reduces the number of servers and database components required.
- Cost Reduction: You can run your Sitecore environment for less money.
- Potential Performance Gains: A lighter infrastructure may run faster, though this isn't guaranteed and depends on many factors.
Strategic Alignment with Future Platforms:
- XM Cloud Compatibility: The XM stack architecture is more closely aligned with Sitecore XM Cloud.
- Session-Based Personalization: XM Cloud also uses session-based personalization as its foundation, leveraging tools like Sitecore Personalize for more advanced, persistent personalization.
This isn't a required step for everyone, but if you're looking for cost savings and aren't using XP's full marketing suite, downgrading to XM while perhaps investing separately in Sitecore Personalize could be a cost-effective path to XM Cloud readiness.
Maximizing The Present: Next-Level Sitecore
If you’re not planning to adopt headless, there are still a few key things you can do to better position your organization for the long-term in Sitecore XP or Sitecore XM.
- Infrastructure Optimization: Reduce your spend on Azure (feel free to call us)
- Consider Cloudflare: Cloudflare can dramatically improve site performance and security.
- Scale down to Sitecore XM: Stop paying for infrastructure what you’re not using.
- Integrate AI: Layer in next-generation content experiences
Combining these approaches can truly transform a frog into prince and give your website a huge boost without a huge reinvention.
Becoming Future Ready: Positioning for XM Cloud
While each change discussed provides standalone value, implementing several of them together positions you brilliantly for an eventual Sitecore XM Cloud migration. You're essentially building for a headless world while still on Sitecore XP, creating site structures that closely resemble XM Cloud architecture. This makes the future migration significantly easier.
Core Requirements for XM Cloud Readiness (on XP / XM):
- Upgrade: Get to Sitecore 10.3 or higher.
- Install SXA: Deploy the Sitecore Experience Accelerator.
- Enable Headless: Install Sitecore Headless Services.
- Modernize Serialization: Switch to the Sitecore CLI for item management.
Additional Enhancements for Even Better Alignment:
- Adopt Vercel: For modern deployment and hosting.
- Implement Experience Edge: For global, high-performance content delivery (if going headless).
If you implement all of these, you've essentially created an "XM Cloud adjacent build" while still on your existing XP license. When you are ready to migrate, the path will be much smoother.
Optional Infrastructure Simplification - **Consider the XM downgrade if you're not using XP's full marketing suite. This prevents building out features that won't directly transfer and keeps your infrastructure lean.
The outcome? You'll be exceptionally well-positioned for a smooth, lower-risk XM Cloud migration when the time is right.
Helping You Get The Most Out Of Sitecore XP
At Fishtank, our philosophy is always to do what's right for the business. Technology is a tool to achieve business goals, not the other way around.
When willingness and opportunity align, investing in Sitecore XM Cloud often makes immense strategic sense. But until that moment arrives, your focus should be on maximizing your current Sitecore XP investment. And trust me, Sitecore XP is still an solid, robust digital experience platform with untapped potential.
The tactical improvements we've discussed—platform upgrades, performance enhancements, cost savings through infrastructure optimization, supplementing with modern tech like Headless, Vercel, Cloudflare, and AI—can dramatically enhance your platform's value. They can make your Sitecore XP setup feel future-proof and modern, even while you remain on its more traditional architecture.
We're genuinely passionate about Sitecore and helping our clients succeed, whether that's on XP, XM, or the latest XM Cloud. We've even sent out those "Forever XP" chocolate bars as a fun way to connect with clients navigating these decisions.
If you'd like to explore how these strategies can apply to your specific Sitecore XP environment please reach out. We're happy to chat, no obligation, and help you work through your options to extract maximum value while planning for what's next. Promise. 🙂