In their presentation, “Content as a Service: A Preview,” Andy Cohen and Alistair Deneys take a pre-release look at Sitecore’s upcoming CaaS offering, which will allow marketers and developers to manage their content for any channel and deliver it globally, using a web API to consume it.
The benefits are pretty clear:
- Developers get direct access to content
- Authors are decoupled from build
- Content can be developed and delivered faster – which means faster time to market
- Content can evolve more rapidly
The following comments are based on what the CaaS offering looks now, while it’s in development. Things might change.
A few of the more interesting points, from my perspective:
Speed and security will be enhanced using Jamstack (JavaScript API Markup) as the primary driver. With Jamstack, files are pre-rendered and served directly from a CDN, so you won’t need to manage or run web servers. While the content originates dynamically from a server (or a source like Sitecore Content Hub), files are precompiled and prefetched/precompiled down to static HTML. All the data you need is ready for use – fast.
Architecture summary: Multi-node, geographically distributed platform, physically disconnected from Content Hub. This increases throughput and provides redundancy. The CDN is a caching layer, reducing latency.
There are two APIs to utilize: a preview API and a delivery API. Preview allows you to see uncached, in-progress content, allowing you to see content updates quickly. The delivery API is optimized for delivery and scale, handling approved content and using caching.
Using Content Hub entities (atomic pieces of content) and entity definitions (controlling the relations and properties of entities), an Entity Graph is created. GraphQL can be used to access the data with only one query. It returns JSON and only the fields you need, reducing the size of your request and making your results more symmetrical. Again: speed!
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- CaaS, both on managed and public clouds, will be a great complement to other cloud services.
- CaaS will be more stable than hosting your own web server.
- CaaS is much more accessible than hosting content on your own web server.
HOW ALPHA SOLUTIONS CAN HELP
Alpha Solutions can get your company set up from start to finish and make sure your CaaS is effective, precise, and accessible. Contact us to start the conversation.
Rob Reilley (AKA Sitecore Runner) is a multiyear Sitecore MVP working as a Senior Business Consultant at Alpha Solutions. He is based in the suburbs of Chicago. He has several years of Sitecore experience working with a variety of clients. He enjoys all things Sitecore, but especially enjoys moving data in and out of Sitecore from different sources.
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