Sitecore Partners with Microsoft
Experience management software company Sitecore announced their plan to expand its partnership with Microsoft. Two companies' ongoing alliance will leverage Sitecore’s Microsoft Azure cloud offerings over the next two years. With the expanded partnership, customers will take advantage of the improved capabilities through Azure's cloud platform, including features aimed at delivering relevant, personalized engagements to customers.
Michael Seifert, CEO of Sitecore, commented on the expanded partnership in a statement:
"Microsoft is a long-term strategic collaborator with Sitecore as we jointly serve several hundred customers worldwide. This expanded partnership will help us speed the delivery of our cloud computing services to market, building on our leadership in web content management and the Sitecore Experience Platform."
Sitecore provides a wide range of capabilities to deliver an agile customer experience, while Microsoft Azure’s fast growing range of cloud services is crucial to take advantage of new technology initiatives such as identity management, media services, and security to name a few.
Sitecore is a Microsoft Gold Independent Software Vendor partner and has been a provider of offerings for Azure since 2010. With this platform, business users are able to build a single view of the customer for personalization, segmentation, and analysis. Its analytics tools consistently search for alternative optimization options, while content changes are tested automatically. As a result, content and commerce tie up together to provide personalized offers through the integration with current commerce software.
Sitecore intends to tap into the Azure Application Platform to provide a simpler cloud experience. The confluence of Microsoft’s and Sitecore’s technologies is expected to help enterprises drive digital transformation at greater speeds and scale as well as to keep marketers focused on keeping up with their customers’ accelerating needs. More specifically, Sitecore will develop platform-as-a-service optimizations specifically for Azure. In addition to that, Azure Resource Manager and Azure Marketplace will be integrated as its primary resource management and provisioning solutions.
Presently, Sitecore and Azure provide many services together. With an integrated user interface, users are able to conduct cloud delivery infrastructure and simplify website deployment to the Azure cloud. The video below demonstrates how the fully integrated Sitecore Experience Platform on Microsoft Azure helps users make automated decisions based on what their customers need.
Here’s what Jean-Paul Gomes, Corporate Vice President and Head of the Microsoft Alliance, has to say:
“We are elated to be taking our Microsoft alliance to the next level. This relationship will accelerate Sitecore’s innovation leadership and growth as a technology company, as well as provide an even more compelling experience to our joint customers and growth opportunities for our joint partners. While Sitecore has been in the market with Azure-powered solutions since 2010, this expanded alliance helps enable Sitecore to innovate its Azure-based solutions at cloud speed and scale, thereby extending that competitive advantage to our joint customers and partners.”
Sitecore Azure is built around Azure cloud services (PaaS) and allows for automatic deployment of web servers and SQL databases which can be deployed from an on premise content editing server to any number of Sitecore Azure cloud services hosted at various Microsoft Azure locations globally.
Here are other capabilities Sitecore Azure provides:
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Scalability, simplicity, and stability.
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Time and money saving during deployment of a solution to a new server.
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Faster and relatively cheaper geographically distributed load balancing.
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Reduced redundancy between geographies for performance, as well as disaster preparedness.
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Automation of most of the process of migrating a website to Microsoft Azure.
"Microsoft is proud to expand our alliance with Sitecore in an effort to bring more compelling digital experiences to our joint customers," said Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice President, Cloud and Enterprise Group, Microsoft Corp. "By combining the power, scale, and rich platform service offerings of Azure with Sitecore's customers, together we will drive digital transformation for our customers and help them achieve more."
Since the details of Sitecore’s licensing have not been shared yet, enterprises may expect Sitecore’s closer alignment to Azure will require a redesign of product licensing. Regardless, Sitecore and Microsoft seem like taking positive steps together in the direction of delivering holistic digital experiences.
Venus Tamturk
Venus is the Media Reporter for CMS-Connected, with one of her tasks to write thorough articles by creating the most up-to-date and engaging content using B2B digital marketing. She enjoys increasing brand equity and conversion through the strategic use of social media channels and integrated media marketing plans.