AEM for Stability, Edge Delivery for Speed: Building Dual-Paced Content Workflows
This session introduces a pragmatic approach to content architecture by combining Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) with Edge Delivery Services (EDS) to support dual-paced content workflows. Attendees will learn how to architect a publishing stack that distinguishes between long-cycle, governed content and fast, real-time updates - each delivered through the platform best suited to its needs.
The speaker will demonstrate how AEM continues to serve structured authoring, compliance workflows, and multi-step governance, while Edge Delivery enables rapid content updates through lightweight, document-based inputs like Google Docs and Markdown. The talk includes real-world patterns for routing content, sharing assets via a centralized DAM, managing cache behavior across lanes, and enabling different teams - marketing, content, and development - to work in parallel without compromise.
Using architecture diagrams, a content decision matrix, and team personas, the session offers a clear blueprint for reducing bottlenecks and delivering content at the speed today’s digital experiences demand - without sacrificing stability or control.
Maverick
How do you combine fragments (EF or CF) with Edge delivery for their content to be visible to Search engine e LLM becoming part of EDS semantic html?
Divanshu Goyal
Experience Fragments (EF) 1. Publish EF as server-rendered HTML (no client-only assembly). 2. Consume EF in Edge blocks via fetch so the final HTML contains the EF markup. 3. Keep stable IDs, headings (<h1>…<h3>), lists, and meaningful landmark roles (<header>, <main>, <nav>, <footer>). Content Fragments (CF) / GraphQL
1. Fetch CF data server-side (Edge or AEM), render into HTML (don’t rely on client hydration for primary content).
2. Emit JSON-LD (schema.org) alongside the rendered HTML (e.g., Product, Article, BreadcrumbList) to help both SEO and LLMs.
Maverick
Do you need a BYO CDN or the one included in AEM Cs is configurable enough to achieve your workflows?
Divanshu Goyal
Short answer: For most teams, AEM CS Managed CDN (Fastly under the hood) is enough. You can do path-based multi-origin routing, custom headers, TTLs, and purge-by-key.
Michael
Wouldn't it be simpler and easier to fix the release process instead? I see no issue being able to achieve fast dev cycles and on demand production releases in AEM without compromising stability. Complicating architecture just because "we are not agile enough" does not seem like the right approach.
Divanshu Goyal
Improving release cycles definitely helps, but campaign pages are different — they’re high-traffic and very time-sensitive. For those, having near-perfect Lighthouse scores and instant updates is critical. AEM Sites still handles the complex, governed content well, while Edge Delivery gives us the agility we need for campaigns without compromising stability.
Masoud Rozati
Did you build same components both for AEM Sites and for EDS? Doens't this duplicate the development effort?
Divanshu Goyal
We avoided duplication with contracts + a shared design system:
1. Design tokens & CSS live in one place (DAM or package). Both lanes import the same tokens and base CSS.
2. Markup contracts (EF HTML spec, CF JSON schema) define the allowed structure.
3. Edge “blocks” are small wrappers that implement the contract (often tiny, document-driven).
4. AEM components remain where complex authoring/logic is needed.
Krystian Panek
I see that we have multiple sources of content. But in the presented architecture, do we have the same theme and final look & feel visible to the end user, or are these things decoupled? If they are the same, are there any issues with compatibility, the common theme, and the HTML/JSON contracts you mentioned?
Divanshu Goyal
Yes, same theme. We keep one design system (tokens, typography scale, spacing, color, radius, shadows) and one asset source (DAM). Both lanes pull from the same:
1. Base CSS bundle (or utility framework) and token variables.
2. XF/CF contracts so structure and naming are stable.
3. Icon set, font files, responsive rules.
Thomas
What had more impact from your perspective: - combining the two technologies - or splitting content & code in two types (regulated and campaign based)?
Divanshu Goyal
The mindset shift (splitting by content type) is the bigger lever; the technology pairing enables it safely.
1. Impact split (our experience): ~60% from lane split (clear governance vs speed), ~40% from tech enablement (routing, contracts, caching, purge, observability).
2. If you try to do “everything fast” or “everything governed,” you lose either reliability or agility. The lane decision is what removes friction.
3. Pairing AEM + Edge Delivery then operationalises that decision with the right tools.