Article
ADOBE
Cloud

Dec 11, 2024

12 Steps to Migrate AEM from On-Premise to the Cloud

At VASS, we’ve worked with several large enterprises, helping them move from AEM on-premise to AEM Cloud Service, executing seamless migrations in less than three months.

Is your organization harnessing the full potential of Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) to deliver exceptional digital experiences across various channels?

If you currently run your websites on AEM On-Premise or rely on Adobe’s Managed Services, it’s time to embark on a journey into the Cloud.

In 2020, AEM introduced the next generation of CMS with AEM as a Cloud Services. It’s time for you and your company to prepare for this transition and embrace this next-generation CMS in the Cloud.

At VASS, we’ve worked with several large enterprises, helping them move from AEM on-premise to AEM Cloud Service, executing seamless migrations in less than three months.

Within this comprehensive guide, our AEM experts have compiled their knowledge and address the following questions:

How can you smoothly transition from AEM on-premise to AEM Cloud?
What are the critical steps for a successful migration to AEM Cloud?
What common pitfalls should you avoid?

But before delving into the steps, let’s explore the compelling advantages of embracing AEM Cloud.

What are the benefits of moving to AEM Cloud?
Moving from AEM On-Premise to AEM as a Cloud Service step-by-step
Need personal guidance with our experts?
Lessons Learned from AEM as a Cloud Service Migration Projects and Best Practices
Key Takeaways for Your AEM as a Cloud Service Migration

What are the benefits of moving to AEM Cloud?

As with any enterprise project, it is essential to demonstrate the clear benefits of migrating your AEM installations to the Cloud to your organization and board.

Let’s explore why this transition is a necessary step.

Moving from AEM On-Premises or managed services to AEM Cloud offers numerous advantages, including:

Reduced Cost of Ownership and Mid-term ROI

The total cost of ownership with AEM Cloud is drastically reduced. Your company might get savings on several aspects:

License: Licensing costs may decrease since the new pricing model is usage-based. Additionally, transitioning to the Cloud provides you with a fresh opportunity to engage in price negotiations with Adobe.
Operational Costs: AEM Cloud simplifies many operational aspects, such as environment management and automated version updates.
Infrastructure and Hosting: If you previously hosted AEM on your premises, you’ll experience substantial infrastructure and hosting expenses savings. This eliminates the cost of maintaining infrastructure.
Workforce: The number of full-time employees (FTEs) required for the project will decrease, resulting in cost reductions.

While the migration project incurs initial expenses, our team has successfully migrated websites to AEM Cloud in less than three months.

The timeline can vary depending on integration complexity and the number of websites and domains involved.

Based on our analysis, the return on investment (ROI) for such a project typically falls below three years. In other words, migrating to AEM Cloud is a worthwhile investment.

Your CMS is always up-to-date, ensuring you have access to the latest features.

With AEM as a Cloud Services, you can say goodbye to version upgrade projects.

Adobe automatically updates the CMS with the latest features, eliminating the concept of versions. It operates like any other Software as a Service, ensuring you are always working with the most current version.

It’s more secure

Security is a primary concern for large enterprises, and AEM as a Cloud Service could offer enhanced security compared to your current setup.

The solution is continuously monitored, and regular patches are applied promptly whenever a security issue is detected.

Read this document about Adobe Cloud Service Security Overview for more details.

99.9% Uptime

With AEM Cloud, your website will always be online. This solution can efficiently scale horizontally and vertically to consistently maintain this high level of service, effectively managing even the most intensive traffic loads.

No Learning Curve

One significant advantage of transitioning to AEM Cloud is that your marketing team will find the tool familiar.

Despite significant changes in architecture, release processes, and operations, the end-user experience remains unchanged.

Content editors won’t notice any differences following the migration if you use the latest on-premise version.

This means you won’t need to invest time and resources in managing this change or providing extensive training to your team.

Focus on Innovation and Achieve a Faster Time to Market

Managing the operation of an Enterprise CMS is a practice rooted in the past. It’s time for your organization to embrace this new reality.

With AEM Cloud, you can accelerate innovation for several reasons:

Your workforce can be fully dedicated to projects that create value.
You gain access to the latest innovations from Adobe.

Thanks to our extensive experience with AEM Cloud Service and collaboration with multiple clients, we have witnessed a significantly improved time to market. Projects are completed swiftly, and new websites can be launched within months.

When your company has a new product or service to showcase, you’ll reap the benefits of working with this new generation CMS.

Moving from AEM On-Premise to AEM as a Cloud Service step-by-step

This section will guide you through migrating from AEM On-Premise to AEM as a Cloud Service.

Each step is carefully designed to ensure a smooth and successful transition to the Cloud, covering critical aspects from initial analysis to going live.

Step 1 – Analyze, Plan, and Estimate the Effort

The initial step in this journey is to understand AEM as a Cloud Service and the associated changes and deprecated features.

Some noteworthy changes include:

Architecture changes with automatic horizontal scaling
Project code structure
Asset storage
Built-in CDN
Dispatcher configuration
Network and API connections, including IP whitelisting
DNS & SSL certificate configuration
CI/CD pipelines
AEM author access with Adobe account
User groups & permissions

Additionally, it’s crucial to evaluate your current AEM installation, particularly in terms of connections and integrations with other services:

APIs or endpoints within the internal network
Third-party services, especially those protected by IP whitelisting
Any data import services to AEM
Login with closed user group (CUG)

These elements should be carefully reviewed, as some adjustments may be necessary.

Another critical aspect is effective communication with current stakeholders, partners, and the Adobe team. Onboarding these parties from the project’s outset is essential, with clear task assignments and timeframes.

For example, you will later discover that the involvement of your internal IT team is required. Informing them in advance is crucial to prevent project delays.

Furthermore, it’s essential to review your licensing agreements with Adobe and ensure that you have the appropriate subscriptions for AEM as a Cloud Service.

While this initial step may only take a few days, it is vital in assessing critical aspects of your installation, defining the project plan and effort, and sharing this information with key stakeholders.

Step 2 – Prepare the code for AEM as a Cloud Service

This step aims to ensure your current AEM installation and its code base are ready for the Cloud while remaining compatible with your existing on-premise instances.

While we won’t go deep into all the structural changes required for AEM Cloud in this article, we’ll provide an overview to keep it easily digestible for all readers.

Adobe offers a helpful tool called the Adobe Best Practices Analyzer designed to evaluate your current AEM implementation and offer guidance on improvements to align with best practices and Adobe standards.

The report generated by this tool covers:

Application functionality in need of refactoring.
Repository items that should be relocated to supported locations.
Legacy user interface dialogs and components that require modernization.
Deployment and configuration issues.
AEM 6.x features replaced by new functionalities or are currently unsupported on AEM as a Cloud Service.

It’s important to note that an AEM expert should review the Adobe Best Practices Analyzer report, as it will not fully comprehend the entire codebase and its implications.

Following the assessment, an AEM architect or developer can restructure the codebase and apply new practices per the latest AEM Archetype.

A recommended practice is further refactoring and reviewing outdated features from your current codebase.

Since comprehensive testing of the entire website and application will be necessary later on, taking the opportunity to eliminate technical debt and establish a more robust foundation is advantageous.

Step 3 – Prepare AEM Cloud Environments

This step aims to prepare the cloud environment and set up AEM Cloud Manager, the backbone of AEM as a Cloud Service. Importantly, this step can be conducted concurrently with the previous one.

Adobe Cloud Manager offers a user-friendly interface that simplifies configuring environments, setting up pipelines, and configuring certificates, DNS, and other essential services.

Please take note: To access AEM Cloud Manager and the necessary services, you must first establish a licensing agreement with Adobe. Start discussions with your Adobe account manager well in advance to prevent any delays at this stage.

Step 4 – Migrate Your Projects and Code to AEM Cloud

By this stage, your code has been refactored, and any changes incompatible with the on-premise setup have been implemented and migrated to make it cloud-ready.

Additionally, all necessary environments (test, staging, production) have been appropriately configured and are ready to host your code.

This step is relatively straightforward and involves pushing your code to the Cloud Git repository. During this phase and until the go-live, it is advisable to enforce a feature freeze.

However, if you cannot afford to freeze features in your production environment or if critical changes must be applied to your on-premise installation, it is feasible to backport the code to the Cloud later.

At VASS, we have experience handling such situations, but it’s essential to understand that a code freeze can help mitigate the risks of project delays and increased complexity.

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Step 5 – Validate Integration with Core Services or External APIs

Chances are, your website relies on data from third-party services or internal applications.

To ensure seamless integration with these services, specific network configurations must be carried out using the Cloud Manager.

Furthermore, AEM as a Cloud Service offers a static IP address that must be whitelisted on your end to enable connectivity with our on-premise applications.

This step is crucial for establishing a secure and uninterrupted connection between your AEM Cloud environment and your core services or external APIs.

Step 6 – Integrate Adobe Target, Adobe Analytics, and the Adobe Experience Cloud Suite

Since you are already utilizing AEM for your websites, it’s probable that you also rely on other solutions within the Adobe Experience Cloud suite, including Adobe Analytics and Adobe Target.

The integration of these solutions is typically straightforward, and they should seamlessly operate within your web pages.

Your existing usage of AEM makes it easier to extend the integration to other Adobe Experience Cloud components, enhancing your ability to analyze and optimize your digital experiences.

Step 7 – Migrate Content

Content migration is an important step, but it doesn’t have to be overly concerning. The structure of the content between your on-premise website and the newly created AEM Cloud website remains the same.

To make this process sound less daunting, you can think of it as a content move, similar to transferring content from your staging environment to the production environment.

Additionally, Adobe offers various tools to streamline this task, such as the Content Transfert Tool, which is specially designed for migrating existing content from your AEM On-Premise to AEM Cloud, and the Package Manager, which facilitates the import and export of repository content.

When we refer to content migration, it encompasses more than just pages; it includes all content within your repository, including:

Page content
Assets
User and group data

Furthermore, since you may continue to create content on your productive site while performing the migration, the tool supports differential content top-up.

You can only transfer changes made since the last content migration, ensuring an efficient and up-to-date transition.

Step 8 – Test, Test, Test

We are approaching the final stages of the migration journey. Although some testing has occurred throughout the various steps, it’s now time for a comprehensive User Acceptance Testing (UAT) session.

Your dedicated testing team and business users should actively participate in this critical phase. It’s essential to have a detailed test strategy in place before commencing UAT.

Including authors in the testing process serves multiple purposes.

Not only does it expedite their familiarity with the new environment, but they are also the individuals most acquainted with how the components should function.

Their input, knowledge, and support are pivotal in ensuring your digital presence remains clear and distinctive.

Conducting thorough testing ensures your migration to AEM Cloud is successful, and your website operates seamlessly in its new environment.

Step 9 – Redirect Domains

This is the final step before going live, and it’s the point where your IT network team plays a key role.

They will manage certificates, DNS configurations, and domain redirection.

As emphasized at the beginning of this guide, it’s crucial that your IT stakeholders were informed from day one of this project about these critical milestones, and tasks were allocated accordingly.

They should be well-prepared and aware of what needs to be done, as preparations for this phase have been ongoing for several weeks.

Effective coordination in this step is essential to prevent delays in the overall process and the go-live date.

Ensuring a smooth domain redirection, your website seamlessly transitions to its new AEM Cloud environment.

Step 10 – Go Live

This step might seem the most stressful, but paradoxically, it’s also the simplest.

Your website has undergone extensive testing, and everything functions seamlessly in the cloud environment. It’s time for the final transition, shifting from your AEM On-Premise instance to the AEM Cloud instance.

The switch will be seamless for your end-users, and they won’t experience any interruptions in service. With careful planning and execution, this step should mark the successful culmination of your migration to AEM Cloud.

“The migration to AEM Cloud is a source of great satisfaction for both the business and IT stakeholders to see the website actively running in the Cloud, moving into a new era of better performance and exciting possibilities to enhance the customer experience. ”

Martyna Wilczynska Project Manager at VASS

Step 11 – Train your Team

Your editors won’t require specific training as the admin interface remains the same.

However, it’s important to note that a new essential tool, Adobe Cloud Manager, has been introduced.

Your IT or DevOps teams should manage this tool, or you can delegate site maintenance to your Adobe Partner.

Our AEM experts can offer training to ensure your IT team possesses the necessary skills and knowledge to handle critical tasks related to SSL Certificates, domain linking, whitelisting, and account management.

Step 12 – Decommission the On-Premise Instance

As a final recommendation, keeping your on-premise server running for 2 to 4 weeks after the migration is advisable.

This precaution provides a safety net in case of any critical situations where you might need to switch back to the on-premise instance.

While, based on our experience, such a reversal is rarely necessary, it’s prudent to manage this potential risk.

Once the hyper-care phase is concluded, you can confidently shift your entire focus to your new AEM as a Cloud Service instance, knowing you have a contingency plan in place if needed.

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Lessons Learned from AEM as a Cloud Service Migration Projects and Best Practices

After several successful migrations to AEM as a Cloud Service, our team has gathered excellent knowledge, and we would like to share some best practices that will help you mitigate the risk in this project.

Start with a Thorough Analysis

Begin your Cloud Migration project with a comprehensive analysis. Avoid rushing the assessment of your current AEM On-Premise setup. It’s crucial to evaluate dependencies and elements that require refactoring carefully.

If this is your first migration, invest time in research and documentation for a project of this nature.

Even if you have an internal team handling AEM, consider seeking support from an experienced Adobe Partner. Their expertise can prove invaluable in ensuring a successful migration.

Manage Stakeholders’ Dependencies

Taking care of stakeholders’ dependencies early in the project is crucial. Multiple members of your organization will play pivotal roles at significant project milestones.

We’ve already mentioned the IT team’s role in managing the network, but other groups may be involved, such as security and quality assurance.

At the project’s start, it’s essential to communicate your expectations clearly with these teams and provide them with precise dates for their involvement.

This proactive approach helps prevent delays and ensures a smooth progression of the project.

Not your typical Scrum project

What may come as a surprise is that a Cloud Migration project does not fully correspond to your typical Scrum-managed IT project.

In the regular framework, we focus on delivering the highest presentable value in the shortest amount of time, and we present our solutions to the clients, constantly asking for feedback.

An AEM Cloud Migration project primarily involves refactoring the backend code, which may not be presentable to the stakeholders until the website is in the acceptance environment in the Cloud and ready for testing.

Regular Team and Stakeholder Meetings

As the three-month timeline swiftly progresses, staying in sync with your team and key stakeholders is essential.

We highly recommend establishing a weekly update routine to track progress, identify and address risks, and implement mitigation plans.

During these weekly reviews, pay particular attention to dependencies with other teams and assess the advancement of their activities. This proactive approach ensures everyone is aligned and swiftly responds to evolving project needs.

“Clear communication with clients is key to risk mitigation, issue identification, and progress updates during the migration. It alleviates client stress and ensures transparency in their digital journey.”

Michael Kleger Project Manager at VASS

Relationship with Adobe

License negotiations must be completed to gain access to the cloud environment.

Equally important is discussing with your Adobe account manager to negotiate to keep a standby server on-premise for a specified period as a fallback.

From our experience, initiating such conversations as early as possible allows for negotiating the most advantageous and flexible transition away from the on-premise infrastructure.

Furthermore, in the event of unexpected issues, you may require support from Adobe’s team. It’s possible that certain features may not function properly when refactored for the Cloud.

To expedite the response time of Adobe Support, it is essential to collaborate with an Adobe Partner who maintains a strong relationship with the Adobe team.

For instance, at VASS, we have cultivated a partnership with Adobe spanning over a decade, and our office is located within 30km of the AEM team responsible for building AEM as a Cloud Service.

This close relationship can be invaluable in certain situations. Over the years, we have developed a robust relationship with Adobe as a company and its talented individuals.

This gives us an advantage in problem-solving, as we possess intimate knowledge of whom to contact without navigating multiple support levels.

Avoid Developing on the On-Premise Instance During Migration

Avoid introducing new developments to your live websites whenever possible while the migration progresses. This practice helps prevent numerous issues.

However, we acknowledge that implementing a three-month code freeze is often impractical.

To mitigate potential problems, ensure that the code on both environments is synchronized and optimized for the Cloud before making any further enhancements to your on-premise branch.

This alignment minimizes complications during the migration process.

Leverage the Opportunity to Enhance Design Flaws

During the migration process, you’ll have the opportunity to test your entire website thoroughly.

Seize this moment to enhance various aspects of your site, including architecture, code refactoring, and minor design adjustments.

In our migration projects, we’ve successfully incorporated improvements such as image rendition generation, frontend enhancements, and optimizations related to performance and caching.

This migration window allows you to transition to the Cloud and enhance your website’s overall quality and functionality.

Key Takeaways for Your AEM as a Cloud Service Migration

In conclusion, migrating to AEM as a Cloud Service is a transformative journey that requires careful planning and execution.

AEM Cloud Service is the future of AEM and this migration sets the foundation.

Throughout this article, we’ve shared valuable insights and best practices from successful AEM Cloud migrations. From analyzing dependencies to fostering solid relationships with Adobe, from weekly team updates to optimizing design flaws, these lessons can guide you toward a successful migration.

Embrace the challenges and opportunities of transitioning to the Cloud, and remember that a well-executed migration can lead to a more efficient, secure, and innovative digital experience for your organization and its users.

With the right approach and the support of experienced partners, you can confidently navigate this journey and deliver excellent results.

We would like to express our gratitude to the talented individuals within our company who contributed to this article, including Martyna Wilczynska, Basil Kohler, Michael Kleger and Samuel Schmitt.

About the authors

Samuel Schmitt

Digital Solution Expert

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