At Valtech, we help enterprises migrate to the cloud with confidence. Our packaged offerings and deep project experience guide clients through the move with clarity and control.
In this article, you’ll discover what it takes to migrate to Adobe Experience Manager as a Cloud Service with confidence, the strategic benefits of modernization and how to overcome the most common challenges and pitfalls.
What it takes to migrate to Adobe Cloud with confidence
For companies still operating Adobe Experience Manager On-premise or via Adobe Managed Services, the question isn’t whether to move to Adobe Experience Manager as a Cloud Service. The question is when to do it, how to do it correctly and how to reduce disruption.
There are strong reasons to move to the cloud. From faster feature adoption to improved scalability and lower operational overhead, the return on investment can be substantial over time.
We’ve helped many global clients make this transition successfully. Our experience shows that with the proper preparation, cloud migration delivers a clear, measurable impact.
That said, the right choice depends on your specific situation. An assessment clarifies the path forward.
In some cases, Adobe Managed Services or Adobe Experience Manager On-premise may still be the best option.
Far more often than not, however, migrating to the cloud is the best approach. A move toward a cloud-native operating model yields measurable business outcomes, including lower costs, faster delivery cycles and a more resilient platform.
Why it's worth the move
Reduced complexity. Faster delivery.
On-premise Adobe Experience Manager comes with operational overhead. You need to manage infrastructure, patching, upgrades and scaling.
Adobe Experience Manager as a Cloud Service removes this responsibility. Adobe handles hosting, updates and security, letting you focus on delivering value.
Access to what's next by default
New features like Edge Delivery Services, Quick Site Creation and AI tools go live on Adobe Experience Manager as a Cloud Service first. If you're not on the cloud version, you’re already a step behind the roadmap.
Operational stability built in
Adobe Experience Manager as a Cloud Service includes autoscaling, self-healing environments and zero-downtime deployments. Environments stay in sync, with content sync from production to lower stages included. You also get built-in monitoring and a 99.9% SLA.
Unlocking Adobe’s generative AI: Smarter content, faster results
Migrating to Adobe Experience Manager as a Cloud Service also unlocks access to Adobe’s Generative AI. It’s built directly into the Adobe Experience Manager Sites editing interface. This enables marketing and content teams to generate high-quality copy and image variations quickly, without needing prompt engineering skills or external tools.
- Meet tone and style guidelines
- Tailor content to specific audiences and personas
- Adapt for regional preferences and behaviors
- Optimize their efforts with performance insights and A/B testing
By migrating to the cloud, organizations gain immediate access to these innovations, accelerating content production, improving personalization and reducing manual effort across the board.
It's not a lift-and-shift
Migrating to Adobe Experience Manager as a Cloud Service is not a simple infrastructure change. It requires changes to architecture, operations and stakeholder processes:
Refactor legacy features
Reverse replication and custom replication agents are not supported. User roles move to Adobe IMS. Clustered authoring becomes the standard. Many custom implementations require re-evaluation.
Validate content and permissions
Migration tools help, but they don’t guarantee success. In several projects, content was missing on publish environments despite positive reports. User groups, permissions and closed user groups often need extra attention.
Start infrastructure setup early
VPNs, certificates and DNS always take longer than expected. They’re not things you want to be chasing right before go-live. They must be addressed early in the migration timeline.
A structured approach: Ready, steady, go
There are two ways Valtech can help:
- Ready, steady. We evaluate your current implementation, run Adobe’s Best Practice Analyzer and identify blockers. The result is a cloud-readiness roadmap and architectural direction.
- Ready, steady, go. We deliver a full migration plan, including a prioritized backlog, estimated efforts, timelines, QA strategy, test cases and cost estimates to support budget planning.
Common migration pitfalls and how to address them
Even with the right plan, a few patterns tend to repeat. Below are the issues we’ve seen come up more than once and what teams can do to stay ahead of them.
| Pitfall | What happens | How to avoid it |
|---|---|---|
| Content missing on publish tiers | Migration tools may flag success, but publish environments are empty or incomplete. | Always validate content on all tiers, especially production publish. Include manual checks in QA. |
| User roles and CUGs aren’t migrated | Shared users, ACLs and closed user groups may silently fail to migrate. | Use packaging for users and groups. Map roles to IMS and validate after go-live. |
| DNS, certificate and VPN delays | Certificates and tunnel provisioning can take weeks, delaying go-live. | Start these processes in the first sprint. Assign owners on both sides. |
| Unclear or ineffective content freeze | Editors continue updating old environments, creating sync gaps. | Define content freeze timelines and cut access fully where needed. Use mirrored authoring only with full awareness. |
| Poor visibility into integration impact | Legacy integrations such as reverse replication or FTPs may break silently. | Perform full integration inventory during readiness phase. Design and test replacements early. |
| UAT isn’t taken seriously | Businesses skip testing or assume someone else is looking at it. Issues show up in production. | Set expectations early. Assign UAT owners by market or topic. Track sign-off. |
When the Cloud might not be the right fit
Adobe Experience Manager as a Cloud Service makes sense for most cases. However, there are exceptions:
- Use of unsupported modules like Adobe Experience Manager Communities
- Heavy user-generated content flows
- Legal or compliance rules requiring local storage
- Regional limitations (e.g., China)
