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London AEM User Group Recap: Cloud or Classic? Navigating AEM’s Future 🚀
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
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Adobe supports two flavours—AEM 6.5 LTS and AEMaaCS.
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Teams should choose based on customization needs, release cadence, operational maturity, compliance, and readiness for continuous updates.
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EDS adds a front-end-driven, performance-first option that can pair with AEM.
AEM 6.5 LTS (Released March 2025, SP22)
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Supports Java 17/21.
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Runs on-prem or AMS.
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Great for orgs needing stability, deep customization, and self-managed upgrades.
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Especially helpful where compliance or integrations make the cloud harder. 🛠️
AEM as a Cloud Service
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Evergreen, cloud-native with automated updates + scaling.
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Comes with Fastly CDN and Cloud Manager CI/CD pipelines.
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Ideal for teams prioritizing release velocity, lower infra overhead, and resilience. ☁️⚙️
Universal Editor
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In-context, collaborative authoring across 6.5, AEMaaCS, and EDS.
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Streamlines workflows no matter the delivery model. ✍️
Edge Delivery Services (EDS)
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Headless-first, front-end-led with vanilla JS “blocks.”
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Git-based workflows + document authoring.
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Multiple CDNs + automated checks for top-tier Lighthouse / Core Web Vitals. 🚀
💬 Community Moments
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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.” 😂
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Big “aha!” reactions when people saw how Universal Editor works across all AEM models—no matter where you are in the journey.
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Lots of nods (and a few groans) when the group weighed cost predictability vs. usage-based models—clearly a hot topic.
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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! 🌍
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
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