What is cloud content management?

Businesses are increasingly looking to the cloud to cover not only their infrastructure needs but, increasingly, to run their Software as a Service (SaaS). In this context, marketers, business owners, and strategists can benefit from the various services and offerings available on today’s cloud.

In this article, we consider cloud-based content management in terms of today’s expanding cloud offerings, define this useful technology, outline its benefits, and highlight important questions for determining the total cost of ownership (TCO) of cloud technology — specifically in the context of marketing technology.

IaaS

Let’s begin with the most basic form of cloud computing: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). In an IaaS model, providers offer IT infrastructure — such as processing, storage, networking, and other hardware — as a subscription service. Users can then deploy and run operating systems, applications, and other software on this cloud infrastructure and access them remotely.

The cost of IaaS subscriptions varies depending on the allocation and consumption of resources. The biggest benefit? No need to invest in, maintain, and secure physical infrastructure.

PaaS

The next step in cloud computing is Platform as a Service (PaaS). While IaaS provides servers, storage systems, and networks, PaaS provides all of these along with operating systems and databases.

In short, PaaS vendors provide a framework — which developers can use to create and deploy applications. In a PaaS model, a third-party cloud provider manages all infrastructure aspects, while the organization’s developers manage the applications.

SaaS

Software as a Service (SaaS) is the next level of cloud computing: software that exists in the cloud and is accessed remotely, usually via the Internet, but sometimes through virtual private networks (VPNs).

SaaS vendors maintain the software, handle the hosting, and deal with support queries, all for a monthly or yearly fee. One of the original innovators of the SaaS model is our partner Salesforce. But even if you’re unfamiliar with Salesforce, chances are you’re familiar with SaaS-based products or brand services.

Consider your subscription to Spotify. You pay a fee, and Spotify provides access to whatever music or podcast your ears desire — no matter where you are. Some other examples include Slack, Dropbox, Grammarly, and Gmail. These are all cloud-based platforms and, therefore, SaaS.

One example of SaaS is a cloud-based content management system (CMS). And, a specific type of cloud-based CMS can be referred to as Content as a Service (CaaS). Cloud content management solutions evolved out of the traditional enterprise content management (ECM) space. A CaaS system takes a traditional CMS a step further: it's a headless content management system that stores raw content on the cloud. 

By raw we mean content in its most basic format, without HTML or template, designed as content building blocks — modular content that can be pieced together in different layouts and consumed by numerous endpoints. The platform uses application program interfaces (APIs) to feed this raw content out to (or deliver content when called by) various consumers (devices or channels, in marketing speak), where it can be rendered and then accessed by end users.

To classify as CaaS, a cloud CMS platform needs to have several key features:

• The cloud
  Like IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS, CaaS requires the cloud. And along with it comes all of the attendant benefits — scalability, price savings, security, and bandwidth increase, along with stress reduction for internal IT teams, etc.
• Object-based content structure
  In a CMS, content can be stored as either blocks or objects (raw content above). An example of block storage would be a CMS that stores webpages in whole, like Drupal. In contrast, an object-based CMS, such as Sitecore, stores that same webpage as objects. One object would be the header image, another the H2 copy, another the body copy, etc. This is critical in today’s omnichannel world — object-based storage smooths cross-channel delivery considerably.
• Headless architecture
  In general, CMS architecture can be divided into the back-end and the front-end. The back-end manages content. The front-end presents it. For many traditional CMSs, these two layers are bound together. Sitecore has always separated them, and our foresight paid off — as the various devices used to access the internet proliferated, developers and content producers increasingly favored the decoupled approach of headless.
• Agnostic presentation
  The decoupled approach is favored for one main reason: freedom. Teams are free to store and deliver content on the back-end, while allowing the various devices the content is accessed on to determine how it gets presented. What this means in practice is the same content can go to a webpage and an Amazon Alexa device. 

Content structure enters back into the picture here. Alexa doesn’t want your banner image. It just wants your headline, subheads, and body copy. If your content is stored as a whole page (versus as objects), you’ll need to make an entirely new Alexa-friendly version.

You can likely already see why both developers and marketers are fans of cloud-based content management. But let’s dig into the benefits a bit more.

A cloud-based content management system’s functionalities can provide many benefits, including:

These benefits translate to increased speed to market, on-demand scaling, worry-free infrastructure management, reduced risk, simplified innovation, and efficient and effective omnichannel content delivery and data capture.

And they're only enhanced by Sitecore’s cloud-native, hybrid headless CMS, Sitecore XM Cloud, which offers simplicity for marketers with its easy-to-use, visual tools, while still letting brands take advantage of cloud digital transformation, by:

• Reducing downtime: Back-end and front-end development teams can work concurrently.
• Offering flexibility: On the front-end, user interface (UI) developers get their preferred APIs, and mobile app developers get easy-to-use content.
• Enabling omnichannel: Marketers get to deliver content across channels, without recreating it anew for each one. 

Another huge benefit of decoupling the back-end and front-end is future-proofing — no matter what channels appear in the future, marketers will be ready to deliver content to them. Brands can stay relevant and create personalized digital experiences.

When it comes to total cost of ownership (TCO), it’s important to consider several factors.

First, you’ll want clarity on upfront costs and subscription fees, including what the fees include. Ask your provider about the costs of hosting, scaling, security, and deployment. 

For example, does the provider offer an SSL certificate? How many page views are included per month? What are the charges for times of heavy traffic, such as Black Friday for an e-commerce business?

You'll also want to talk with your solution provider, their enablement partners, and even current customers (assuming you can find them), about another upfront cost: The training your team will need to get up and running.

Second, you’ll want to consider updates. Many cloud-based solutions, such as Sitecore XM Cloud and Sitecore Content Hub ONE, update automatically. While this convenience, offering you the latest version with minimal updates from your team is ideal for many solutions, it’s not always the best option for your brand. That will depend on your business’s digital maturity, the size of your IT team, and their preferences. Whatever option is best for your needs, it’s worth clarifying what is needed on your end for implementing new versions.

Data protection legislation, such as GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) have made it all the more necessary for organizations to maintain security and compliance with customer data. Cloud CMSs enable the localization of content and data policies, which streamlines these needs. Be sure to explore the security and data options of the cloud CMS platform you’re considering.

Different organizations have different needs. This is as true for deployment options as it is for software. Sitecore offers cloud-based content management tools, and we continue to support on-premises and managed cloud options to optimize business processes.