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Before you replatform: What to consider when moving to a new DXP

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Before you replatform: What to consider when moving to a new DXP

by Ebin Ephrem

1/22/26

If you’re operating on a legacy DXP like Adobe AEM and considering a change, you’re not alone. Many organizations are reaching a tipping point where the systems that once enabled growth are now slowing it down. What used to feel comprehensive now feels complex. What once promised scalability now introduces friction. 

The decision to move away from a legacy platform isn’t just a technology decision, but a business one. It requires clarity around what’s no longer working, what your organization truly needs next, and how your content, data, and extended teams must evolve to keep pace with modern customer expectations. 

Before making the move, it’s worth stepping back and asking the right questions about which platform and capabilities are right for you, and how it can best serve your brand. 

Outline your why 

Before selecting any platform, it’s critical to define why you’re switching in the first place. The most successful migrations are guided by clear principles, not feature checklists. 

Common drivers include: 

  • Eliminating vendor lock-in 
  • Adopting composable technology that flexes to your needs instead of forcing you into an all-in-one solution 
  • Reducing time to market for campaigns, content, and new experiences 
  • Lowering total cost of ownership (TCO) 
  • Future-proofing the business with a platform that can evolve alongside changing customer expectations 

At the heart of all of this is one essential question: Is your platform helping or hindering productivity, discoverability, and personalization? 

The decisions you make now determine whether your digital foundation enables long-term success or becomes the next system you need to replace. 

Identify the right platform 

In this AI era, the digital landscape is evolving much faster than traditional DXPs were designed to handle. Platforms like AEM were once the industry standard, but over time they’ve grown into large, tightly coupled ecosystems that can be difficult to adapt, expensive to maintain, and slow to change. 

Modern organizations need platforms that are: 

  • Composable, not monolithic 
  • Open and interoperable, not locked into a single vendor’s ecosystem 
  • Change-friendly, not change-resistant 

The right platform should empower marketers, content teams, and developers to work at the speed of the business — without unnecessary dependencies, heavy customization cycles, or long release timelines. 

Why Contentstack? 

Contentstack represents a fundamentally different approach to digital experience. Rather than forcing organizations into a predefined stack, it enables them to build the ecosystem they actually need. 

As an adaptive, composable, and agentic DXP, Contentstack is designed to integrate easily with best-in-class tools across CMS, personalization, commerce, DAM, analytics, and data platforms. This openness allows organizations to create their own connective tissue — assembling only the capabilities that deliver real value, without paying for or maintaining features they’ll never fully use. 

Unlike legacy platforms that only play well within their own ecosystem, Contentstack is built to be integration-friendly by design. This flexibility reduces dependency on a single vendor, lowers implementation barriers, and allows teams to evolve their stack as business needs change (and not every five years, but continuously). 

Just as importantly, Contentstack shifts power back to the people closest to the customer: marketers with easy-to-use visual builders, analytics, and personalization tools. And in doing so, organizations gain the agility needed to support real-time, personalized experiences at scale. 

A new playbook for content and customer data, enabled by AI 

AI is changing how content is created, managed, and delivered, but its real value is in removing friction from the process so teams can focus on higher-impact work. 

Contentstack embeds AI directly into content operations, helping teams: 

  • Automate repetitive, low-value tasks that slow production 
  • Train AI to understand and apply brand voice consistently 
  • Personalize content at scale without increasing headcount 

This approach allows marketers and content teams to move faster without sacrificing quality or governance. Instead of spending time on manual updates, rework, or versioning across channels, teams can focus on strategy, storytelling, and experimentation — where human creativity delivers the most value. 

Craft a business case 

With more than 15,000 technology solutions available, deciding to move away from a platform your team has used for years can feel overwhelming. That’s why the first step isn’t selecting a replacement — it’s understanding the full impact of staying where you are.

Start with assessing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) 

When you first start evaluating a new platforms cost, you often look first at categories like... 

  • Capital expenses 
  • Recurring expenses 
  • Operational costs 
  • Enhancement costs 
  • Cost of complexity 

A meaningful TCO assessment goes far beyond licensing fees. It requires alignment with business objectives — both near-term and long-term — and a deeper look at hidden costs, including: 

  • Lost customers due to poor user experience 
  • Lost productivity from complex workflows 
  • Delays to market that limit revenue growth 
  • Ongoing costs of maintaining unnecessary complexity 

Ask yourself: If you switched to a platform like Contentstack, would you improve conversion rates, accelerate content production, or increase revenue?

Get a free TCO assessment

Uncover the true cost-savings of switching to a new digital experience platform. Our experts work hand-in-hand with you to map out your realistic ROI with a custom business case based on your unique needs, operations, and budget.
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The cost of doing nothing 

If your technology is slowing you down, the cost of standing still is often greater than the cost of change. Your legacy platforms are limiting both your agility and growth. 

However, technology alone doesn’t drive success. But preparation does. Your migration will act as a strategic inflection point that impacts people, processes, and how value is delivered to customers.  

Without a clear digital strategy, even the most modern platform can quickly replicate old inefficiencies. Taking the time to define priorities, align stakeholders, and clarify what success looks like ensures the move enables meaningful change, not just a new system. 

Moving to a modern, composable platform like Contentstack is about building a foundation that supports personalization, productivity, and long-term business value. Because in today’s digital landscape, the most expensive decision is doing nothing at all. 

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