Introduction
This article is written as an analysis note/ whitepaper on Adobe tool capabilities in Digital Marketing landscape.
Opportunity
Ø Unified
Eco system orchestrated among most Adobe Digital marketing tools and cloud
solutions
Ø Adobe is
building newer set of components suited to Digital Marketing for B2C ( i.e.
granite) as most of the default and demo components are just scratching the
surface for enterprise needs
Ø By far
the best UI component model in Java as its modular ( learning's from eclipse
components) and standards based ( JCR and OSGI )
Challenges
v Many
tools are not generic or time tested in terms of implementation volumes
v Understanding
of scenarios and standardization ( from the domain and sub-domains) is needed for
identifying and building the right set of components for the enterprise
v Building
re-usable, extensible UI components needs expertise
Impact for Industry
Ø Shorter
cycles for Digital marketing roll-outs targeting niche trends/events in the
market.
Ø Clients
and Vendors with a base and advanced set of components will have an edge over
other product and enterprise teams.
Ø As long
as the components stick to JCR and OSGI standards, inter-operability against
other JCR based vendors is guaranteed. This will serve the long term interest
of avoiding vendor lock-in in larger engagements.
Standards Based Content Management Roadmap
Oracle
View
“The
Content Repository API for Java Technology (JCR) is poised to revolutionize the
development of Java EE applications in the same way that the Web has
revolutionized the development of network-based applications. JCR’s interface
designers have followed the guiding principles of the Web to simplify the
interactions between an application and its content repository, thus replacing
many application-specific or storage-specific interfaces with a single, generic
API for content repository manipulation. “
IBM View
“Most
importantly, JSR-170 (Content Repository) has strong support from industry
leaders, including SAP AG, Macromedia, and IBM, establishing its use and
importance in the enterprise landscape. Just as object-relationship mapping
frameworks transformed database programming, the JCR API has the potential to
dramatically change the way we think about and develop content applications”
Adobe
View
“CRX
natively manages all content as defined in the Content Repository for Java
Technology API Version 2.0 specification - also known as JCR 2.0. This
programming interface - defined by the ECM industry - provides developers with
a stable and well-defined, yet extensible content and query model that protects
past and future investments.”
Adobe CQ - Whats in it?
Caching
• Predominantly
static page – e.g. Marketing Information which is authored. This is
cached at the dispatcher level and any updates are pushed to the webserver on a
need basis by the publish
• Static
set of variations in dynamism – e.g. a different type of menu system
for various device groups namely tablets, features and touch phones. There is a
querying parameter for the url but it’s a closed set which can be cached with
the parameters. The dispatcher and publish has a protocol on which page is
cached and how many variations. i.e if the selectors defined for the page and
template are the only differences in the multiple URLs, dispatcher can cache
these as individual files and serve them with the help of sling url resolution
methodology.
• Dynamic
Business Logic - Predominantly dynamic but there are author-able
configurations which change rarely (2 days to 6 months range).
For e.g. Login/Registration, Marketing widgets, Social feeds
(periodic). In these cases a CQ component handles static configurations and
brokerages with a service (J2EE or other) to serve the request. There might be
internal caching strategies built at the service level also (Facebook feed
updated every 15 min).
• OLTP
Modules - Explicit dynamic use cases which would place enormous
processing load on the publish server are better run out of an application
server or commerce server. This again depends on multitude of factors but for
most B2C/corporate implementations where performance and scalability is a
critical factor above rule applies de-facto. For e.g.
shopping cart, complex search widgets etc
• Others
-
§
Permission-sensitive caching enables you to cache secured pages.
Dispatcher checks users' access permissions for a page before delivering the
cached page. This is a rare usage today as CQ is sparingly used in B2B space.
For e.g. in a B2B portal the entitlements of a user or a group is maintained
(dispatcher is user aware) but individual pages are also cached for performance
§
Adobe is building/improving capabilities like Page personalization,
Forms, Rules engine, shopping cart etc. Hence, in future versions, CQ might
have application server capabilities with a robust servlet engine complemented
by a layered caching strategy already in place. This makes the case strong for
fronting Adobe CQ as a UI delivery engine and delegate specific advanced
features to other systems in the interim.
Performance and Scalability
- Adobe suggests
90% caching of web pages whereas in real world most applications are only
60-70% cached. This is because most re-engineered applications are from
other OLTP technology stacks (.NET and J2EE)
- By practice,
it’s perceived that Adobe’s infrastructure sizing guidelines are 50% short
when caching is 60-70% particularly during email campaigns.
- Clustered
Authors has never been a practical solution unless the authors are atomic
in terms of functional composition. May be we might need a global author
for common content too. The content orchestration / federation has to be
planned and governed for this to work. Simply put, it’s not advisable to
suggest clustered author as of today unless there is a clear use-case
- Repository sizes
of more than a TB needs Adobe’s ratification as of today from a practical
standpoint
- It is suggested
to have twice the repository size as a disk free space for emergency
backups. Adobe repository uses file system for storage and works like a
large file system or SVN. Cold backups are the safest in this context.
- TAR-PM services
(similar to versioning/rollback services) are not effective and they need
large maintenance periods for large repositories.
- Governance for
content cleanup is a core issue for large repositories.
- CDN like Akamai
is critical for campaigns
- Brainstorming
cache-able use cases vs. others is critical for Project/Program Success
- Size of images,
JavaScript is crucial for Tablets and Mobile
- Responsive
design if chosen should be designed effectively as it might affect
performance in the Mobile world
- User Specific
sessions are not to be used unless its B2B/Intranet portals. Also, usage
of CQ in B2B/Intranet is sparse
Security
- Author vs
Publish mode is not out-of-box. This configuration is not fool-proof and
needs meticulous planning and execution.
- Lots of security
loop-holes in workflow management found in earlier versions. These have
been closed in 5.5 but sufficient care must be taken in security
architecture.
- Un-Moderated
workflows for User generated content are not advised.
- Session to be
managed using customized encrypted session token over SSL
- Author is still
a single point of failure in most topologies and hence should not be
exposed without a VPN tunnel.
- Tripod firewall
is not enough. DMZ between 2 independent firewalls is suited to host the
webservers or another secure reverse proxy
- REST web
services have become the order of the day. But the security considerations
have to be brainstormed. For B2B usage within the same Hub (firewall),
this is acceptable. In all other scenarios, the industry standard
infrastructure security guidelines and legal compliance steps for
partnerships should be enforced strongly.
Conclusion
Adobe’s Digital Eco system is in its take-off stage. A careful analysis of needs and strengths would
help organizations to choose products and partner with right set of cloud
vendors in this tricky landscape.
Note: The views expressed here are Author's personal views on product/tool capabilities and are to be considered as neutral from any commercial standpoint. The reader is advised to consider this for informational purposes without assigning any commercial value to it.
