Start Early for a Successful AEMaaCS Migration

AEM is a leading digital experience platform that offers a cloud-native deployment option and SaaS-like agility for enterprises. The cloud version is known as AEM as a Cloud Service (AEMaaCS). In this post, we'll explain the advantages of getting a rolling start on the AEMaaCS cloud migration effort for organizations considering a migration.

The migration to AEMaaCS is a significant undertaking, and depending on the size of an organization, it can take anywhere from a few months to a couple of years to complete. Some organizations decide to tackle this work as a project, hiring a partner like Oshyn to engage on a project basis, which typically involves a 2-4 week planning session, the migration period, and the regression testing and launch phases.

However, we advocate for a different approach. Instead of attempting to plan a migration over a few weeks and tackling the total migration effort in a stand-alone project, we advocate for clients to engage a partner up to one year ahead of a planned migration. During this one-year period, many preliminary tasks can be accomplished that reduce the overall risk of the project and also increase the advantages to be gained from the migration.

Here’s a description of the preliminary tasks that can be completed and their advantages.

Why Start Early on an AEM Cloud Migration

There are a few reasons to start early on an AEM Cloud migration.

A thorough migration analysis and design phases.

The total effort of migrating from a legacy DXP to AEMaaCS boils down to a gap analysis, which shows the gulf between an organization's and implementation's current state and their expected state after a migration to a modern cloud offering.

The challenge with the typical migration project approach is that the gap analysis tends to be rather rigid. The compressed timeline of analysis and migration effort doesn’t leave time for the business to thoroughly consider adjustments to requirements, modified processes, culling of content, or the deprecation of unused features and functionality. As a result, almost everything in the legacy system is moved to the cloud, warts and all.

Instead, with a slower approach to migration analysis and design, an organization can more carefully consider opportunities to remove unneeded requirements and inventory content, consider site and content architectural changes, or jettison customizations in favor of out-of-the-box functionality.

Identifying migration challenges and risks.

By starting early, migration teams will have ample time to plan and implement strategies to mitigate project risks. This includes uncovering potential challenges and risks, such as data incompatibilities, integration issues, team interdependencies, or custom development needs.

Reducing the AEM development and testing efforts.

An initial step towards the migration will involve scanning the code base to determine the refactoring effort required to be compatible and compliant with the cloud environment.

With an early start on this effort, teams can perform refactoring over time while continuing to conduct business as usual. Teams can also ensure that new features developed during this period are consistent with required coding patterns.

As a result, the technical debt of a pending migration is steadily reduced. This provides development efficiencies and enables code testing efficiency, as there’s usually higher-quality code and fewer bugs or issues on the other side of migration.

Reducing the overall timeline of the discrete migration project.

An early start on the migration project, chipping away at the work, allows for better scheduling and resource allocation. It also means the size of the team handling the discrete migration could be smaller, helping shorten the project timeline.

Identify which parts of the current website could benefit from redesign or re-architecture.

By starting early, the migration team will be able to determine which parts of a CMS or site need to be redesigned or re-architected. With ample time to prepare and plan, the team can decide whether implementing these improvements before, during, or after the migration will be easier and faster, and all options will be open to them.

Complete a content inventory and collaborate on content cleanup and content migration.

Content migration can take a long time for enterprise websites with hundreds of portfolio websites. Starting early provides sufficient time to conduct a comprehensive content inventory, identifying outdated or redundant content that can be deleted or cleaned up before migration. This can reduce the effort of the content migration and improve authoring and customer experiences in the new environment.

Optimize the use and adoption of the AEM application, tools, and resources.

By starting early, a migration team will have more time to familiarize themselves with AEM's tools and resources. This preparation can lead to higher adoption rates and more efficient use of AEM's capabilities once the migration is complete. It also gives teams time to assess their legacy customizations and to better map those features and functionality to the native capabilities of AEM, reducing the need for custom development.

Reduce risk by increasing third-party partner knowledge of the codebase and architecture.

Beginning a migration process earlier gives third-party partners more time to familiarize themselves with your existing codebase and architecture. It also promotes a more collaborative partnership between an enterprise and its partners. This reduces the risk of errors and miscommunications and ensures the migration is aligned with your organization's technical and business requirements.

Work to be Completed Ahead of AEM On-Prem to AEM Cloud Migration

The previous sections described recommendations for moving from a legacy CMS or DXP to AEMaaCS. However, for organizations already on AEM on-prem and who are considering a migration to AEMaaCS, here are some of the specific preliminary steps that can be taken to promote a successful migration. To accomplish these items, it is recommended that you engage with your internal AEM development team or in an ongoing development support engagement with an AEM partner.

The AEM on-prem to AEMaaCS preliminary activities include:

• Code Refactoring: To achieve this, migration teams need to run Adobe's code checker tool to assess code readiness for AEMaaCS deployment. Teams must also gradually improve AEM components to ensure compatibility with AEMaaCS, identify and eliminate unnecessary AEM components, and suggest opportunities to replace AEM component customizations by adopting or extending AEMaaCS out-of-the-box (OOTB) capabilities.

• Repository Refactoring: Here, teams must identify the Archetype version, address possible version issues, and assess dependencies that could impact migration.

• OSGI Configurations: Another task is to review and complete OSGI configurations to ensure readiness for migration.

• Custom Indexes: Teams should conduct a preliminary analysis to understand, address, and modify custom indexes before migration.

• Dispatcher Configuration: Migration teams must analyze and enhance the dispatcher configuration before a cloud migration to ensure best practices and identify forbidden practices.

• CDN Transition: Evaluate the feasibility and effort required for transitioning to Adobe's recommended Fastly CDN for cloud sites.

• Environments Configuration: No immediate work is required before migrating, as environments can be configured during migration.

• Third-Party Integrations: It's necessary to evaluate the full scope of integrations, assess the risk of potential integration failures, and prepare documentation, including keys, IP addresses, and URLs.

• Content Migration: While the complete content migration will only occur once the migration is in progress, it's helpful to provide guidance on content purging or rewrites, identify areas for content freeze, and increase preparedness for content migration.

• Regression Testing: Teams should initiate the development of automated tests to establish a robust QA process. This will enable the team to leverage regression testing effectively and ensure that most of the testing effort is completed before migration.

Get Ahead on Your AEMaaCS Migration With Oshyn

When an organization takes the appropriate time to consider how a move to the cloud will improve marketing, content, and technical operations, the business will not only realize greater benefits from the migration but also likely lower the risk, cost, and effort directly associated with the migration. Getting an early start on your AEM as a Cloud Service migration can yield tremendous benefits and make the migration process and the tasks that need to be completed before the migration much more manageable.

Oshyn is a dedicated Adobe partner with decades of experience building exceptional digital experiences. With years of experience in content management, our services for the Adobe DXP product suite cover the entire lifecycle—from design planning and development to post-launch enhancements and ongoing maintenance.

We can help you transition to AEMaaCS swiftly and start leveraging Adobe's advanced marketing capabilities faster than ever. If you're ready to migrate to AEMaaCS, contact us to see how we can help.