Use cases
This section describes common use-cases for Uniform Optimize for Sitecore.
Improve site performance#
If you are having site performance problems with Sitecore, Uniform can improve performance by decoupling the parts of Sitecore that typically cause site performance challenges: personalization, tracking and page delivery.
The ability to cache Sitecore pages has been a limitation since server-side origin-based tracking and personalization were introduced to the platform in the early days. This effectively prevented caching the pages at the CDN level without lost functionality, which is why many existing Sitecore solutions only leverage CDN for static resource caching, but not pages.
Typically, CDNs are able to deliver the page in 50ms TTFB or less. Origin-based delivery like traditional Sitecore results in highly variable, but TTFB is often measured in seconds, especially if the system is not optimized or experiencing unusual load.
With performance being the SEO concern these days as well, the pursuit of sub-second page load time is pretty much impossible without CDN-based content delivery.
Sustain traffic spikes#
That feeling when the business is about to launch a massive campaign and you cross your fingers that your auto-scaling setup is just right and you have enough juice to support the traffic spikes.
By offloading 100% of page delivery to the CDN, your offload the scaling problem to that layer as well, which is far more elastic than any web server and database.
Increase site scalability#
If you are having trouble scaling Sitecore, or you find that scaling Sitecore is complex, expensive, or both, Uniform can increase site scalability by reducing or eliminating the need to scale Sitecore in the first place.
With Sitecore, performance and scalability often go hand in hand. The best way to increase scalability is to leverage a system that is designed specifically to solve scalability challenges: CDN. Uniform enables you to use your CDN to cache all pages, even those with personalization.
Simplify Sitecore architecture#
A production Sitecore architecture, especially when using Sitecore XP, is very complex. There are many services that need to run in order to deliver the functionality required for a personalized site. Uniform can simplify the Sitecore architecture by decoupling personalization, tracking and page delivery. This enables you to turn off many of the services that are needed in a traditional Sitecore architecture.
Once the content delivery is offloaded to the CDN, the only time when the Sitecore CD server needs to render the page is during cache misses (after the page has been published or when the PoP node on the CDN infrastructure needs to pull from the origin).
If Uniform Deploy is used, the need for a CD environment can be eliminated entirely. This means your Sitecore environment needs to support the load created by content authoring and publishing, not site visitors. It is not unusual for the CD environment to be 2-3x the CM environment.
Reduce Sitecore hosting costs#
If you find that the cost of running a production Sitecore environment is much higher than you expected, Uniform can help reduce those costs by moving functionality off of the Sitecore server to a CDN and to the browser.
With Uniform, a CDN can handle personalization and page delivery much faster and cheaper than a Sitecore instance can, and the browser can handle tracking with no cost to you.
Uniform Optimize reduces the amount of work the Sitecore CD servers are responsible for by decoupling the most expensive tasks Sitecore performs. Having less work to do means that you are usually able to downscale both vertically and horizontally, which can result in significant cost savings.
If Uniform Deploy is used, the role of the Sitecore environment is limited to the authoring and publishing processes. The cost of hosting the CM environment is an order of magnitude smaller than the CD environment.
Visitor tracking without Sitecore XP or Xdb#
Maybe you have never turned on Sitecore Xdb. Or maybe you turned it on and later turned it off. Or maybe you have an XM license and Xdb is not available to you.
With Uniform, you can still capture visitor behavior without an Xdb instance, and without an XP license.
More importantly, you can capture the same level of detailed visitor behavior captured in Sitecore Xdb in popular marketing tools like Google Analytics.
Unlock visitor data from Sitecore Xdb#
Sitecore provides visitor tracking, analytics and reporting capabilities. With traditional Sitecore, you must use Sitecore's tools in order to use any of this information, and you must wait for Sitecore processing to complete before that information can be used. Getting access to that data involves writing custom applications using the xConnect API.
With Uniform, visitor behavior data can be sent to popular marketing tools like Google Analytics are the moment the data is captured. Uniform unlocks visitor behavior data from Xdb, without you having to write any custom code.
Conduct site-wide A/B testing#
Sitecore offers A/B testing and reporting capabilities, but those features are configured at the component level. Site-wide testing is not possible without custom development that can lead to more performance and scalability problems.
Uniform offers a simplified and more accessible version of A/B testing that instantly and automatically applies site-wide. Since Uniform uses the CDN to execute testing, there is no risk of testing affecting site performance.