Sitecore is a leading content management system (CMS) known for its advanced, flexible, and robust features designed to assist in the creation, management, and personalization of web content. Out of the box, Sitecore has a number of key features that contribute to its popularity, including an integrated marketing suite, scalability, multichannel marketing, user-friendly interface, multilingual support, and more. It’s a powerful CMS that has the capabilities to help your business achieve digital success.
While Sitecore in and of itself is a powerful platform, it’s only as powerful as its latest upgrade. Like any other CMS, it’s critical to regularly upgrade your version to ensure it’s operating at full efficiency. Upgrading your instance is a proactive measure to secure your website, enhance performance, and provide a better experience for both internal and external users. Staying up to date with the latest Sitecore version is not just advisable, but necessary for the health and success of your online presence.
Americaneagle.com has provided Sitecore development and upgrade services to businesses across industries for more than 10 years. We’re proud to be an original Sitecore agency partner, providing services such as enterprise implementations and integrations, version upgrades, solution audits, hosting and migrations, trainings, and more. Our robust team of strategists, developers, and consultants work diligently to provide you with Sitecore agency services that transform your digital experience.
Learn more about all of ways we leverage Sitecore to help your online presence thrive.
Sitecore 9 vs. Sitecore 10: What’s Changed?
Sitecore introduced a variety of enhancements for both Sitecore 9 and Sitecore 10. We’ll cover the important ones below.
Introduction to Sitecore 9
Sitecore 9 was released in October 2017 and represented a significant advancement over its predecessors in the Sitecore CMS product line. Sitecore 9 introduced a slew of new features and improvements for a more comprehensive and user-friendly experience for both digital marketers and developers. Here are some of Sitecore 9’s key features and benefits:
- xConnect: A service layer that allows developers to integrate with the xDB (Experience Database) more efficiently. xConnect facilitates the connection and retrieval of customer interaction data from various sources, helping in the creation of a more complete customer profile.
- Sitecore Forms: A feature that allows marketers to create forms directly from the Sitecore interface with a drag-and-drop editor, making it simpler to gather customer information.
- Sitecore Cortex: Cortex is Sitecore’s machine learning framework that leverages AI and machine learning algorithms to automate content tagging, personalization, and testing, all of which enhance its marketing capabilities.
- Federate Authentication: Sitecore 9 supports federated authentication, which means it allows users to log in using their credentials from external providers like Google, Microsoft, or Facebook.
- Headless Development: Sitecore 9 provided significant advancements with supporting headless development through Sitecore JavaScript Services (JSS), providing developers the ability to build websites using certain JavaScript frameworks such as Angular, React, or Vue, while still utilizing Sitecore’s backend capabilities.
- Installation Frameworks: The release of Sitecore 9 revamped the installation process with Sitecore Installation Framework (SIF), leveraging Microsoft PowerShell to automate and streamline the installation of Sitecore instances.
Since the release of Sitecore 9, there have been a few subsequent updates: Sitecore 9.1, Sitecore 9.2, and Sitecore 9.3.
Introduction to Sitecore 10
Because of its robust capabilities, Sitecore 9 laid the groundwork for the innovations and advancements in Sitecore 10. According to Sitecore documentation, the Sitecore Experience Platform 10.0 is focused on enhancements and product updates to provide more development and deployment options, increase usability, and improve overall performance. These enhancements are centered around enabling both IT and marketing teams equally, making is easier and faster to launch and evolve digital experiences.
Sitecore 10 boasts a number of new and improved enhancements. Sitecore has introduced new deployment capabilities, including compatibility with Docker and Kubernetes, along with readily available Sitecore-specific image repositories. These enhancements simplify the transition to a continuous delivery approach for teams by facilitating infrastructure-as-code deployments and streamlining the onboarding process for solutions and teams. Additionally, the inclusion of the ASP.NET Core SDK and a headless rendering host framework offers developers fresh methodologies for constructing their applications, enabling quicker development cycles.
Since the release of Sitecore 10, there have been several subsequent updates: Sitecore 10.1, Sitecore 10.2, Sitecore 10.3, and Sitecore 10.4.
Why Upgrade to Sitecore 10?
Upgrading to Sitecore brings a variety of new enhancements, features, and improvements over previous, older versions. Here are some of the reasons why upgrading your CMS to Sitecore may be beneficial to your website:
- Enhancement Features and Performance: Sitecore 10 offers improved speed, reliability, and performance, significantly benefiting the user experience.
- Modern Integration Capabilities: Sitecore 10 is equipped with enhanced capabilities to integrate with modern platforms and tools, offering a more seamless and connected ecosystem.
- Improved Developer Experience: Developers benefit from improved tools and frameworks, thereby making it easier to build, test, and deploy Sitecore solutions across the entire platform.
- Support and Security: Sitecore 10 introduces a number of security features and updates which provides a more secure environment for your content and data.
- Future-Proofing: Upgrading to Sitecore 10 ensures your website is prepared for future updates and changes in the digital landscape.
Sitecore 10 New Features
Sitecore 10 boasts a number of new features, all designed to streamline processes for both developers and marketers working within the platform.
- Containerization Support: Sitecore 10 provides out-of-the-box containerization. With this version, Sitecore developers are able to deploy containers using Docker Compose and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). The support for the containers ensures a simplified installation process, flexible and rapid software development and deployment, reduced consumption of system resources, and a continuous delivery approach.
- Marketing and Automation Enhancements: Sitecore 10 provides a number of marketing and automation enhancements. Audience analytics filters enable deeper insights on audience engagement and segmentation to drive better personalization across channels. Another marketing automation capability includes customer engagement through automated birthday campaigns for even deeper personalization.
- Extended Headless Architecture Support: With Sitecore 10 comes a software development toolkit for headless services based on .NET Core. A headless approach is becoming increasingly common for developing ecommerce solutions as it ensures flexibility, scalability, and time-efficiency. Sitecore 10 allows teams to develop a more powerful ecommerce solution for several channels within a shorter time frame.
Things to Consider Before Upgrading
Upgrading your CMS is a critical decision as it directly impacts your website’s functionality, performance, and security. Before undergoing an upgrade, take the following into consideration to ensure a smooth transition:
- Assess Your Current Website: Analyze and understand your current strengths and limitations, including third-party tools, plugins, and customizations. Additionally, identify areas that need improvement or additional features.
- Data Migration: It’s vital to develop a strategy for migrating data and any configurations without loss or corruption. Consider how much manual intervention will be needed from your development partner during the migration.
- Performance Testing: Creating a staging environment to test the upgrade before rolling it out is an important step in the upgrade process. Ensure the new version meets your load time and responsiveness benchmarks.
- Professional Guidance: Without professional guidance from a Sitecore agency, a CMS upgrade may be a strenuous process. It’s critical to consult with Sitecore development professionals before tackling the project yourself. Consider partnering with Americaneagle.com for a seamless upgrade.
FAQs about Sitecore 10
Below, our Sitecore experts answer frequently asked questions about upgrading to Sitecore 10.
How different is the upgrade process from Sitecore 9 to 10?
The upgrade process from Sitecore 9 to Sitecore 10 involves a number of important steps and considerations, each to ensure a smoother and more efficient transition. By leveraging improved tools, planning for database changes, and thoroughly testing your environment, our Sitecore web development team helps you achieve a successful upgrade. Contact us to learn more about the upgrade process.
What are the hardware and software prerequisites for Sitecore 10?
To successfully transition to Sitecore 10, your environment must meet specific hardware and software prerequisites. Our team recommends the following:
Hardware:
- Processor: Minimum of 4 core processor is required but can be scaled higher for production or highly trafficked environments.
- Memory: At least 16 GB RAM (32 GB or more recommended) for optimal performance.
- Disk space: A minimum of 100 GB available disk space, with SSDs recommended for improved performance.
Software:
- Operating system: Windows Server 2016 or later, or Windows 10 for development purposes.
- Web server: IIS 10.0 or later.
- .NET Framework: .NET Framework 4.8.
- Database: SQL Server 2016 SP2 or later, or Azure SQL Database.
- Search provider: Solr 8.4.0 or later, or Azure Cognitive Search.
- Containers: Docker for Windows, with Kubernetes for orchestration (if using containerized deployments).
Please keep in mind that hardware and software prerequisites for Sitecore 10 vary depending on the version (Sitecore 10.1, Sitecore 10.2, Sitecore 10.3, or Sitecore 10.4). To ensure a seamless transition, it’s best to consult with your Sitecore development agency.
Are all Sitecore 9 plugins compatible with Sitecore 10?
While many Sitecore 9 plugins may work with Sitecore 10, it is not guaranteed. Compatibility depends on a variety of factors, such as the nature of the plugin and any changes in Sitecore 10’s architecture and APIs. By thoroughly testing, validating, and updating the plugins, a seamless and functional solution can be integrated into your site. Visit Sitecore’s modules compatibility table to learn more about Sitecore 10 and later version’s capabilities.
How does Sitecore 10 affect my current content and digital assets during the upgrade?
Generally, upgrading to Sitecore 10 preserves your current content and digital assets without major changes. However, it’s important to plan and execute the upgrade carefully to ensure content and asset integrity. Our Sitecore developers recommend testing through a staging environment to verify that all content and assets, like media files, will be correctly transferred and function as expected in the new version.
What is the latest version of Sitecore?
The latest version of Sitecore is Sitecore Experience Platform (SXP) 10.4, released in April 2024. This version boasts several key enhancements including improved marketing stack integration, accessibility and security updates, enhanced visitor profiles, and almost 200 more updates stemming directly from customer input and feedback. With Sitecore 10.4, users can choose XM or XP variants or transition into Sitecore XM Cloud.
When was Sitecore 10 Released?
Sitecore 10 was officially released on August 4, 2020. The new version brought about a diverse range of features, enhancements, and improvements that offer more efficient development, improved content delivery, and enhanced marketing capabilities.
Work with a Certified Sitecore Partner
Upgrading to Sitecore 10 offers a multitude of benefits that enhance performance, integrate modern capabilities, and reinforce security measures, ensuring that your digital presence remains robust and effective. As industries become increasingly competitive, staying updated with the latest version of Sitecore is critical for maintaining the health of your website and keep pace with the competition.
To learn more about our website upgrades and Sitecore development services, contact us today by completing our form or calling (877) 932-6691. Our Sitecore agency experts are ready to help you navigate the complexities of upgrading to ensure a smooth and successful transition to Sitecore 10.
As a top Sitecore development agency, Americaneagle.com attends and sponsors various Sitecore conferences and symposiums throughout the year. Continue to check on this page to learn which Sitecore conferences we’ll be at and when.
