Push to Sitecore Edge, the truth about Content as a Service using Content Hub
Akshay Sura - Partner
17 Feb 2021
Sitecore released the Sitecore Experience Edge in early February 2021. It is the latest product in Sitecore's push to SaaS (Software as a Service). Sitecore already has a SaaS based product namely Sitecore Content Hub through the Stylelabs acquisition in 2018.
Sitecore Content Hub is my favorite product nowadays as we are working more in the Jamstack space using several Headless technologies.
Use the links at the bottom of this blog post for more information on Sitecore Content Hub.
The Sitecore Experience Edge comes in two parts, one which is focused on Sitecore Content Hub and the other is focused on Sitecore XP. The Sitecore Experience Edge for Sitecore Content Hub is officially available as of February 9th, 2021.
Currently, the only way to get the data out of Sitecore Content Hub is via the Sitecore Connect module that integrated with Sitecore XP or we could directly consume the data via the extensive Content Hub API/SDK.
The Sitecore Experience Edge for Sitecore Content Hub makes the Content Hub data available in the cloud using a distributed data delivery platform via a GraphQL endpoint. This endpoint can be used by your front-end applications directly on the distributed edge networks which I believe are run on the Cloudflare Infrastructure.
Now here is the powerful and the most useful part, the data available on the GraphQL endpoint is not just the Sitecore Content Hub - Content Marketing Platform (CMP) but also the Sitecore Content Hub - Product Content Management (PCM) data. This is huge!
If your company wants to go true Headless and you already have the Sitecore Content Hub subscription, my recommendation would be to use the Sitecore Experience Edge to take your websites the Jamstack way.
It is important to note that the Sitecore Experience Edge does not replace Sitecore JavaScript Services (JSS). The existing Sitecore XP and JSS can use the Sitecore Experience Edge to scale the content delivery needs.
Sitecore Experience Edge is capable of exposing all of Sitecore Content Hub data including the multiple language support.
You can configure content types in the Sitecore Content Hub to push to the Sitecore Experience Edge based on rules:
- You could configure these rules based on either the Lifecycle Status or any other attributes.
- You could use any date property in your content item to define the content availability. Content Scheduling made easy.
We will go into more detail as to how to set up your data so that it is publishable to the Experience Edge in the coming days.
The GraphQL endpoint is optimized for cache and you can set your own Time To Live (TTL) while running queries.
If you have any questions, please get in touch with me. @akshaysura13 on Twitter or on Slack.
Useful Links:
- Using Sitecore Content Hub As a Service with Jamstack - Next.js and Netlify
- Supercharge your Product Strategy using Sitecore Content Hub Webinar
- ADA and AODA compliance using Sitecore Content Hub Image Alt tags
- Sync your Products from Content Hub Product Content Management (PCM) to Sitecore Commerce XC, XP and beyond!
- Sitecore Content Hub - Digital Asset Management - DAM - Administration
Akshay Sura
Akshay is a nine-time Sitecore MVP and a two-time Kontent.ai. In addition to his work as a solution architect, Akshay is also one of the founders of SUGCON North America 2015, SUGCON India 2018 & 2019, Unofficial Sitecore Training, and Sitecore Slack.
Akshay founded and continues to run the Sitecore Hackathon. As one of the founding partners of Konabos Consulting, Akshay will continue to work with clients to lead projects and mentor their existing teams.
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