Sitecore XM is still around

Being home back from a wonderful Sitecore Symposium conference, one of the really key messages for me was one that probably won’t get as much attention as some of the new initiatives such as AI initiatives with Sitecore Stream or extensions for XM Cloud managed with a new Marketplace.

When I attended SUGCON i spring it was one of the first public appearances by the Dove O’Flanagan in his new role as CEO. Back then it was clear that the new leadership has a much more product focused perspective, which F found really positive.

XM will continue

While there have been a period where the SaaS was at least very much in focus from Sitecore representatives there is now a much more balanced message. It is clearly recognized that XM/XP will stay around for a while.

It was announced that there will be a version 10.4 soon and then a 10.5 release coming next year and hereby, with the Product Support Lifecycle there will be Mainstream Support for 3 years and Extended Support for 6 years.

At the same time there is actually a lot of focus on how can you benefit of the newer SaaS solutions in some areas even though XM might be the right you you, no matter the reason. There are several initiatives to support using CDP while staying on XM, which I really think make sense, the xDB, mongo, etc. has always been a struggle to host and operate in a performing way for many organizations. If you are already using xDB data there are now tools to help you use the data in PowerBI and hereby build a bridge to have another data source for your metrics and dashboards some day in the future. Similar there are efforts to better integrate Connect and Search to modernize your experiences while staying on XM.

GenAI with the new Sitecore Stream add-on was one of the big announcements at Symposium and I am sure you will find more information about that at the website of Sitecore or other blogs. What I find important in this context is that specifically focus on Brand Assistant and Content Generation support for XM was also mentioned in road ahead for this product. There is really a focus on integrating those capabilities in all the various Sitecore products and help the customers, marketeers, and editors to get the most value of the products, assets and content already being used.

Roadmap for DXP/XM/XP

As always, the roadmap is a forward-looking statements that are subject to ongoing evaluation and subject to change. So nothing is granted but it is still pretty nice to get an insights in what Sitecore see right now as coming in the near future.

I don’t think the roadmap is shared on the official Sitecore website but it was shared at Symposium including the reservations mentioned above, so there are not really any secrets revealed here.

The roadmap was initially shown at SUGCON in the spring nothing has been removed but a few new things have been added.

The future

There is no doubt that we need to move from the integrated monolith where sites based on ASP.Net Framework is necessary due to the runtime of Sitecore. The headless approach makes a really great direction for the future here and Sitecore have a very compelling offering where the integrated editor experience is still working almost seamless, it creates a very clear interface that allows us to use new technologies no matter what Sitecore is using and it will allow future releases to keep the same interface even though the inner technology might some day change.

With the confirmed continued commitment for XM we should be able to transition to a headless experience not just as necessary platform task with little value for the business but as an integrated part of future work on the website for redesigns, new features, etc.