Content · Migration
Adobe Experience Manager Migration
Leave the legacy stack behind without losing what worked: audited inventory, parallel validation, phased cutover. Delivered by Adobe-certified AEM specialists.
Overview
AEM migration, done properly
AEM Sites and Assets manage multi-brand, multi-locale content and digital assets with structured workflows, reuse and governance suited to large marketing organizations. The move itself is the risk; discipline in the move is the mitigation.
What makes AEM migration its own discipline is the platform's specific failure surface — headless delivery via Content Fragments and GraphQL behaves differently in production than in documentation, and shortcuts around cloud Manager pipelines and deployment automation surface months later as trust-eroding gaps that are expensive to unwind. The scope below reflects AEM engagements that went right, and audits of ones that didn't.
Scope
What's included
- Current-state audit and migration assessment
- Data mapping and transformation design
- Parallel-run validation and reconciliation
- Post-migration verification and optimization
Our approach
AEM expertise applied
- Information architecture and component library design
- Editable templates, core component extension and theming
- Assets taxonomy, metadata schema and DAM governance
- Translation and multi-site management setup
- Cloud Manager pipelines and deployment automation
The specifics
What migration means for AEM
AEM migrations we run: on-prem or AMS to Cloud Service (repository restructuring, asset ingestion, pattern-detector remediation, pipeline adoption) and CMS-to-AEM replatforms with content models redesigned rather than copied. SEO continuity — URL mapping, redirects, structured data parity — is planned from day one, because rankings lost at cutover are revenue lost.
The business yardstick doesn't move with the service type: AEM work is ultimately judged on outcomes like scale content operations across brands and locales without duplication; give authors autonomy inside guardrails developers define; serve both traditional pages and headless channels from one repository. Every migration engagement here is scoped with at least one of those as its explicit target.
In practice: how AEMmigration actually runs
A Cloud Service migration honestly told: repository restructuring and pattern-detector remediation take longer than anyone budgets, custom code written against on-prem assumptions needs triage (refactor, replace with Core Components, or retire), asset ingestion at scale needs its own workstream, and author retraining is real because workflows change. We sequence by site criticality, run the SEO-continuity discipline on every URL, and keep a rollback-capable parallel period. The payoff is genuine — pipelines, autoscaling, always-current — but it's earned, not clicked.
How it runs
How we run migration for AEM
- 1
Audit & inventory — What exists in the estate you're leaving, what is used, what shouldn't survive the move — AEM migrations shrink healthily when inventory is honest. For AEM that typically touches sites authoring with editable templates and core components.
- 2
Map & design — Data, content and logic mapped into AEM idiom — redesigned where transliteration would embed the old platform's problems, notably around sites authoring with editable templates and core components. For AEM that typically touches assets with metadata, renditions and Dynamic Media.
- 3
Build & parallel-run — AEM built while the source keeps running; reconciliation reports compare the two on real traffic. For AEM that typically touches multi-site management and translation workflows.
- 4
Cut over in phases — Staged switchover to AEM with rollback paths, sequenced around your business calendar — never around ours. For AEM that typically touches headless delivery via Content Fragments and GraphQL.
- 5
Verify & retire — Post-migration validation against baselines, then deliberate decommissioning — zombie legacy systems beside AEM are a cost and a risk. For AEM that typically touches workflow, approval and versioning controls.
Engagement models
- Fixed-scope migration.Priced against an audited inventory with parallel-run gates on the AEM build — the predictability procurement wants.
- Migrate + operate.We move you to AEM, then run it under a managed service — accountability with no handover seam to fall through. A natural fit when serve both traditional pages and headless channels from one repository is on the near-term roadmap.
- Migration assurance.Your team executes the AEM move; we design, gate and validate. The economical model when in-house capacity is real.
How we measure success
- Reconciliation between AEM and the legacy stack clean before cutover, verified after
- Historical continuity preserved where it matters, consciously dropped where it doesn't
- The legacy platform actually decommissioned, with the savings realized
Pitfalls we design against
- Lift-and-shift thinking.Copying the old system's shape into AEM imports its problems with interest. Idiom-aware redesign is the point of moving.
- Continuity amnesia.Rankings, sender reputation and historical baselines are assets; a AEM migration that ignores them donates value to competitors.
- The immortal legacy system.If the old platform never dies, you bought a second platform, not a AEM migration. Decommissioning is in the plan from day one.
Frequently asked questions
What does AEM migration cost?
It depends on scope — for AEM chiefly on aem as a cloud service vs managed services and how much integration surrounds it — which is why we don't publish rate cards. Share your requirements and we'll return a transparent, itemized migration proposal.
How senior are the people doing the AEM work?
Delivery is led by Adobe-certified consultants who work with sites authoring with editable templates and core components daily. We staff named individuals, not a rotating bench, and you meet the AEM team before anything is signed.
Can you work alongside our in-house AEM team?
That's our preferred model. We deliver with your team in the room — including on translation and multi-site management setup — document as we go, and define success as your people owning AEM confidently, not depending on us permanently.
How quickly can a AEM migration engagement start?
Scoping starts within days of first contact; AEM delivery — including early work on editable templates, core component extension and theming — typically begins within two to three weeks once scope is agreed and access is arranged. Urgent AEM situations can be fast-tracked; say so and we'll plan around it.
Will we lose historical data or continuity moving to AEM?
Some history always translates imperfectly between platforms — the honest version of this answer names what, before cutover. Our parallel-run approach reconciles both systems on live AEM traffic, baselines are exported before anything is switched off, and continuity decisions are made explicitly with you rather than discovered afterward.
Why choose DWAO for AEM migration?
Adobe Gold Partner status, certified AEM specialists who work with sites authoring with editable templates and core components daily, and delivery evidence toward outcomes like scale content operations across brands and locales without duplication. More practically: named people, documentation in your systems, and success defined as your team owning AEM — the model that earns renewals rather than assuming them.
Related
Other AEM services
Scope your AEM migration
Tell us where your AEM estate stands and what migration needs to achieve. A certified AEM consultant reviews it and comes back with a practical next step — not a sales pitch.
- Adobe Gold Partner with certified AEM specialists
- Migration scoping response within one business day
- AEM delivery teams across five countries
Thank you — we've got it.
An Adobe-certified consultant will reply within one business day.