AEM AS CLOUD SERVICE INTEGRATION

 

AEM AS CLOUD SERVICE INTEGRATION

AEM Cloud Service introduces the next generation of the AEM product line, moving away from versioned releases like AEM 6.4, AEM 6.5, etc. to version-less, fully continual releases of “AEM as a Cloud Service.” 

This is different than their existing Adobe Managed Services or Cloud Manager offerings which run AEM as a standalone app running on Virtual Machines in the cloud.

A new version of AEM running natively in Adobe’s cloud as a Platform as a Service (PaaS).

For developers, system engineers, and Architects, however, this new architecture is a paradigm shift. It enables significantly greater scale and performance, at the cost of flexibility and some of the more unconventional capabilities of AEM.

 

Advantages of moving to AEM as cloud service:

·         Reduce support/maintenance efforts

·         Continual product updates / enhancements (no more upgrades)

·         High availability

·         Real-time scalability

·         The latest code base, always

·         Self-sustaining and always learning

Ø High availability: One of the key benefits of moving to AEM Cloud Service is the ability for all services to be always on, so that our customers never experience downtime.

In the past, especially on the author side, there was a need to periodically stop the service for different types of maintenance operations: updates, patches, upgrades, and some routine maintenance operation but now there is no requirement to do that. 

Ø Real-time scalability: All instances of the AEM Cloud Service are created equal with default sizing. AEM Cloud Service is based on an orchestration engine (Kubernetes) that constantly monitors the state of the service and dynamically scales up and down, depending on the needs of our customers without them having to worry about it, both vertically and horizontally. Scaling can be done manually or automatically based on customer requirements.

Ø The latest code base, always: This might be the most useful and most anticipated feature delivered by AEM Cloud Service to customers. With AEM Cloud Service, Adobe takes care of updating all running instances to the latest code base. Updates will be pushed silently without any downtime.

Ø Self-sustaining and always learning: AEM Cloud Service keeps on learning and evolving itself based on the projects implemented by our customers. Content, code, and configurations are constantly reviewed and vetted against best practices, which helps in guiding our customers on how to achieve their business goals. Various components in AEM Cloud Service equipped with health checks and are self-healing.

 

AEM Version upgrade or AEM as Cloud Service:

Consider moving to AEM as a Cloud service v/s any efforts to upgrade AEM to the latest version. While there are benefits to AEM 6.5, moving to AEM as a Cloud Service could provide significantly more benefits and will get you on a platform more aligned to Adobe’s vision.

So, treat AEM as a Cloud Service as the next version of AEM and plan upgrade accordingly.

Moving to AEM cloud service is much beneficial, due to continuous updates, your system will always be up to date with all latest hot fixes. Moving to cloud based solution also reduce infrastructure and maintenance cost.

What is required?

Log in to https://experience.adobe.com/#/downloads with your Adobe ID to get AEM as a Cloud Service SDK's Quickstart Jar

Other development tools:

Ø Java 11 SDK

Ø Install Git

Ø Install Node.js (and npm)

Ø Install Maven

Ø Setup development IDE(Eclipse/Visual studio)

Adobe Cloud Manager is integral to the continuous upgrade approach of AEM as a Cloud Service, as it controls all updates to your instances - this is mandatory.

Updates can be triggered by Adobe when a new version of the cloud service is available.

Alternatively, you can trigger your application updates using the pipelines provided by Cloud Manager.

Cloud Manager is:

·       used to manage AEM programs and environments,

·       an essential component of AEM as a Cloud Service; each new tenant is first provisioned for Cloud Manager access,

·       the single entry point for your operations and development staff.

Specifically, the number of and the type of AEM programs that can be created from the Cloud Manager is derived either:

·       from the customer licensing agreement,

·       from internal-driven actors when AEM as a Cloud Service is used for enablement, or training,

·       from external-driven processes such as trials started from Adobe.com.

Cloud Manager has evolved as a self-service portal where the main components of AEM as a Cloud Service can be created and configured:

·       Creating and managing new programs.

·       Creating and managing the AEM environments within these programs.

·       Creating and managing the pipelines for deploying the customer code and the related configuration to a specific environment.

·       Being notified of important lifecycle events for these components (for example, product updates).

Currently Cloud Manager is able to create environments in 3 geographical regions (with more regions following):

·       US (East)

·       EMEA (Netherlands)

·       APAC (Australia)

For existing AEM applications to run on AEM as a Cloud Service, the following steps are expected:

·       The application code and configuration must be stored in the Git code repository of the associated Cloud Manager program.

·       The application code and configuration must be compatible with the latest version of the baseline AEM image (which might be changing daily).

Integrating AEM as a Cloud Service with Adobe Target requires knowledge of Adobe Target, AEM Activities management, and AEM Audiences management.