London AEM User Group Recap: Cloud or Classic? Navigating AEM’s Future 🚀 | Community
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Saumya
Saumya
Level 2
August 21, 2025

London AEM User Group Recap: Cloud or Classic? Navigating AEM’s Future 🚀

  • August 21, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 705 views

Wow—What a Kickoff! 🎉

On 12th August 2025, the London AEM User Group held its very first session—and the energy was off the charts! Over 20 AEM pros tuned in for a lively, practical conversation on the question every team is weighing right now:
👉Should we move to AEM 6.5 LTS or AEM as a Cloud Service (AEMaaCS), including Edge Delivery Services (EDS)?

The chat was buzzing, the questions were sharp, and more than a few people admitted this decision feels like “choosing between two favourite children.” 😅

Honestly, you had to be there—the mix of energy and ideas was contagious.
This wasn’t just another meetup; it felt like the foundation of a local AEM family, where curiosity and collaboration take center stage.

A recording of the 42-minute session is available for anyone who couldn’t attend live. 

 

 

 

Speaker Highlights 🎤 

  • @jineet_vora , VP Lead Software Engineer
    Broke down why the question isn’t “Which is better?” but “Which is better for you?”
    Covered AEM 6.5’s new LTS release (March 2025, SP22), support for Java 17/21, and EOL timelines (Core Support: Feb 2027, Extended: Feb 2028).
    Framed how LTS offers stability, flexibility, and self-managed upgrades for teams not yet ready for the evergreen cloud.
  • @saumya , AEM Tech Lead
    Explored AEMaaCS’s evergreen model, monthly updates, Fastly CDN, and Cloud Manager pipelines.
    Demoed the Universal Editor as a unified in-context authoring layer across 6.5, AEMaaCS, and EDS.
    Shared real-world notes on CDN customization, monitoring, and operational trade-offs.
  • @christian_vogel_adobe  (Adobe), Head of Sales GTM Content, Central Europe
    Explained why Adobe built Edge Delivery Services (EDS): to take direct ownership of performance and delivery.
    Showcased the performance-first, vanilla JS blocks approach, with phased rendering + multiple CDNs.
    Shared eye-opening examples like 700 pages migrated in 4 weeks and near-100 Lighthouse scores.

 

Key Takeaways ✨

The AEM Landscape in 2025

  • Adobe supports two flavours—AEM 6.5 LTS and AEMaaCS.

  • Teams should choose based on customization needs, release cadence, operational maturity, compliance, and readiness for continuous updates.

  • EDS adds a front-end-driven, performance-first option that can pair with AEM.

AEM 6.5 LTS (Released March 2025, SP22)

  • Supports Java 17/21.

  • Runs on-prem or AMS.

  • Great for orgs needing stability, deep customization, and self-managed upgrades.

  • Especially helpful where compliance or integrations make the cloud harder. 🛠️️

AEM as a Cloud Service

  • Evergreen, cloud-native with automated updates + scaling.

  • Comes with Fastly CDN and Cloud Manager CI/CD pipelines.

  • Ideal for teams prioritizing release velocity, lower infra overhead, and resilience. ☁️⚙️

Universal Editor

  • In-context, collaborative authoring across 6.5, AEMaaCS, and EDS.

  • Streamlines workflows no matter the delivery model. ✍️

Edge Delivery Services (EDS)

  • Headless-first, front-end-led with vanilla JS “blocks.”

  • Git-based workflows + document authoring.

  • Multiple CDNs + automated checks for top-tier Lighthouse / Core Web Vitals. 🚀

 

💬 Community Moments

  • One attendee joked that moving from Classic to Cloud was like “handing over the keys to your house but keeping the spare in case Adobe loses theirs.” 😂

  • Big “aha!” reactions when people saw how Universal Editor works across all AEM models—no matter where you are in the journey.

  • Lots of nods (and a few groans) when the group weighed cost predictability vs. usage-based models—clearly a hot topic.

  • The EDS performance examples (700 pages in 4 weeks!) had the chat lighting up with emojis.

These moments made the session feel less like a webinar and more like a community hangout.

Helpful Links and Resources 🔗

Presentation slide and recording of the video can be found – Here 

If you missed the session, you can watch the recording here: 




What’s Next 📅

  • Stay connected with the AEMUG – London Chapter 👉 Join here to receive event notifications, RSVP links, and updates. 
  • Future London sessions will continue the conversation with hands‑on demos and an in-person event.

💭

💭 Join the Conversation

Cloud or Classic—what’s the single biggest factor steering the decision in your organization?
 1. Deep customization + infra control?
 2. Release frequency?
 3. Compliance + DevOps maturity?
 4. Cost predictability?
 5. Or performance goals?

Drop your thoughts in the comments—we’d love to hear how your team is navigating the AEM future! 🌍

    3 replies

    kautuk_sahni
    Community Manager
    kautuk_sahniCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    August 22, 2025

    Thanks so much, @saumya ,@jineet_vora & @christian_vogel_adobe for sharing this detailed recap . The session sounds incredibly insightful, especially the practical breakdown of when to choose AEM 6.5 LTS versus AEMaaCS, and the demo of the Universal Editor across different setups is super useful. It’s great to see real-world examples like the 700-page migration and performance-focused EDS approach. 

    Quick questions:

    Q1. From your experience, when teams are evaluating AEMaaCS adoption, which factor tends to be the deal‑breaker more often, operational maturity and DevOps readiness, or the ability to leverage the evergreen cloud features and automated updates? Curious to hear what’s driving decisions in other organizations.

    Q2: For those thinking about their next AEM project, what’s the single biggest factor influencing your choice: stability, cloud features, release speed, or something else? Would love to hear thoughts. 

    Kautuk Sahni
      Saumya
      SaumyaAuthor
      Level 2
      August 25, 2025

      @kautuk_sahni Thanks so much for the thoughtful feedback and great questions! 🙌

      Q1: From what we’ve seen so far, the deal-breaker often depends on where a team is starting from:

      • For orgs with strong DevOps maturity and automation pipelines already in place, the evergreen updates and reduced infra overhead of AEMaaCS are a huge draw.

      • On the flip side, teams with complex customizations or limited operational readiness sometimes lean toward 6.5 LTS because the predictability and control outweigh the benefits of automated updates—at least for now.

      Q2: For the next AEM project, it’s really a mix, but a few patterns stand out:

      • Stability + control for highly regulated industries.

      • Release speed + new features for teams under pressure to deliver quickly.

      • And increasingly, performance goals (Core Web Vitals, Lighthouse) are shaping the choice, especially where EDS comes into play. 

      Curious to hear what others in the community are seeing—what’s the biggest factor for your teams right now?

        Shashi_Mulugu
        Community Advisor
        Shashi_MuluguCommunity Advisor
        Community Advisor
        August 25, 2025

        @saumya @jineet_vora @christian_vogel_adobe Can we also list down feature comparison between AEM 6.5 VS AEM 6.5 LTS vs AEM Cloud service? Like if a customer is not moving to AEM cloud what CMS features they are missing ex: CF export to Target, No integration with Genstudio or AJO etc..GEN AI features

          Saumya
          SaumyaAuthor
          Level 2
          August 25, 2025

          Absolutely! Here's a clearer comparison that highlights what CMS features are present—or absent—depending on whether you're using AEM 6.5, AEM 6.5 LTS, or AEM as a Cloud Service (AEMaaCS). This should help everyone understand what they might be missing if they're not moving to the Cloud.

           

          Feature / CapabilityAEM 6.5AEM 6.5 LTS (SP22)AEM Cloud Service
          Deployment ModelOn-prem / AMSOn-prem / AMSFully managed Cloud (SaaS-like)
          UpgradesManual, disruptiveManual, stable cadenceEvergreen, zero-downtime
          Infra ScalingCustomer-managedCustomer-managedAuto-scaling infra
          CDNExternal (e.g., Akamai, Cloudflare)ExternalBuilt-in Fastly CDN
          Java SupportJava 11Java 17 / 21Managed by Adobe
          Universal EditorNot availableNot availableAvailable
          GraphQL / Headless APIsLimitedLimitedFull support + enhancements
          Edge Delivery Services (EDS)Not availableNot availableAvailable
          Content Fragment → Adobe Target ExportNot availableNot availableAvailable
          Integration with Adobe GenStudioNot availableNot availableAvailable
          Integration with Adobe Journey Optimizer (AJO)Not availableNot availableAvailable
          Generative AI FeaturesNot availableNot availableCloud-first rollout
          Legacy Features (Classic UI, Communities, etc.)AvailableAvailableSome deprecated
          Best ForDeep customization, full controlStability, compliance, predictable supportInnovation, integrations, future-proofing

           

            JennaFeldman
            Adobe Employee
            JennaFeldmanAdobe Employee
            Adobe Employee
            August 25, 2025

            @saumya & @jineet_vora - thank you both for taking the time to share your insights with the group! This was a really engaging session, and I look forward to more in the future.

             

            Are you planning to host all meetings virtually, or will there be some in-person as well?

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