AEP Vs CDP

[nsvsrk]

Hi all,

All these days I have been of the view that AEP itself is a CDP.

But now I understand that CDP is an app built on top of AEP, along with Journey Optimizer, Journey Analytics and Mix Modeller.

Kindly suggest what does CDP do on top of AEP.

Realtime profiles are created in both these.

Is there an overlap of functionalities between AEP and CDP?

What is the division of labor between these two?

Appreciate all your responses.

Thanks,

RK.

[nsvsrk]

I see that CDP does Activation also, pushing segments to various destinations.

Thought that this is the function of AEP.

Thanks,

RK.

[bjoern__koth]

Hi @nsvsrk 

Your confusion is understandable, and quite often the two are used interchangeably.

Simply speaking, Adobe Experience Platform is the broad underlying platform for customer data, while Real-Time CDP is a specific packaged application built on top of AEP focused on marketer-friendly audience building and activation.

AEP centralizes, standardizes, and stores customer data through the use of XDM schemas and datasets and also covers data governance. It serves multiple applications (e.g., RTCDP, Journey Optimizer, Customer Journey Analytics) and technical use cases beyond marketing activation, such as analytics and data science.

The CDP uses identity, and profile services to unify known and anonymous data into real-time customer profiles.

[nsvsrk]

Thanks @bjoern__koth .

Kindly elaborate it a bit more:

1. Creation of Identity Graphs and Unified profiles: Do both AEP and CDP perform?

2. CDP does Activation, pushing segments to various destinations.

Does AEP also do it?

3. Is there any function that is performed by both AEP and CDP?

Thanks,

RK.

[bjoern__koth · Accepted solution]

AEP provides functionalities like the Profile and Identity services, but the are not exclusively available to othe CDP, but can also be used in other tools like AJO, so these are (to my knowledge) shared services. In that sense, the CDP is using what AEP provides as underlying services.

AEP’s Destinations service enables users to activate audiences and segments directly to a wide range of destinations, including streaming, batch, and custom endpoints.

CDP builds on AEP’s activation framework to focus on customer data activation for personalization and cross-channel campaigns.

It uses the same underlying AEP Destinations and Profile services but adds CDP-specific UIs for audience management and governance.