The document discusses the rising trend of decoupled CMS (Content Management Systems) and its implications for businesses. It outlines the necessary steps, timing, and considerations for adopting a decoupled approach, including the potential benefits and trade-offs involved. The document also introduces a hybrid model that retains editorial capabilities while leveraging modern JavaScript technologies for improved user experiences.

1. Decoupled CMS Is On The Rise.
Is It Right For You?

2. Agenda
What is decoupled?
What does it take to decouple?
When should you decouple?
The third mode

3. Presenters
Ron Northcutt
Solutions Architect Team Lead
at Acquia
Matt Davis
Director of Engineering
at Third & Grove

4. What is decoupled?

5. Decoupled is not
a new trend

6. Microservices as a
whole are growing
Commerce
Customer
Service
Shipping
Tax
Email

7. Since we’re on
the subject..
Commerce

8. Traditional CMS
(Fully coupled)
Traditional CMS
Frontend and Backend are linked

9. Traditional CMS
(Fully coupled)
Decoupled CMS
(Headless)

10. Decoupled CMS
(Headless)
Fast
Secure
A decoupled UX
Dynamic

11. Develop simultaneously without blockers
Decoupled means:
Front End
Back End

12. Decoupled means:
Modern technologies for dynamic experiences
and growing talent pool

13. Create once, publish anywhere
Decoupled means:

14. What does it take to
decouple?

15. Time to Market
- How long does it take to build a decoupled site
from scratch?
- How long does it take to decouple a Drupal
site?

16. Necessary steps
- Build in-house expertise with JS framework
(React, Angular, VueJS)
- Plan cache strategy for content update timing
- TTL
- Content cache tags
- Cache purge
- DevOps plan for NodeJS

17. Tweaks to Support Decoupling
- Content editorial experience
- Build process
- Release cycles for template changes
- Team processes to support app changes
- Potentially create additional tools for content
creators

18. When should you
decouple?

19. Decouple when:
You are a true multi-channel business
- Desktop website
- Mobile application(s)
- Digital signage
- Voice interfaces
- Syndication

20. You have a strong front end team
- JS framework expertise
- Developer led decisions
- Desire for app-like experiences
Decouple when:

21. Decouple when:
Different business units have different editorial
workflows
- Potentially have multiple content sources
- Potentially different content models and workflows
- Allow decoupled app to aggregate content

22. Decouple when:
You can leverage content in multiple ways
- Note 1
- Note 2
- Note 3

23. Decouple when:
You want bleeding edge, lightning fast
experiences
- Modern JavaScript
- Rich UX
- Amazing performance

24. How would a team’s responsibilities/capabilities
change with a decoupled approach?
– How do the FEs work with the BEs?
– How are releases managed differently from a
people/role perspective?

25. Decoupled tradeoff:
Loss of content creator control
- Content layout control
- Responsive preview
- Meta tag and url overrides

26. Decoupled tradeoff:
You lose powerful site building functionality in the
CMS
- Menu management
- Clean urls through the admin
- Views pages and blocks

27. Decoupled tradeoff:
You lose contextual editing
- Drag/drop block placement
- In-line editing

28. Decoupled tradeoff:
You lose easy personalization
- Regardless of personalization tool
- Decoupled personalization is difficult

29. Decoupled tradeoff:
Potentially break some Drupal modules
- Note 1
- Note 2
- Note 3

30. Core Decoupled tradeoff:
More power to the developer
Removes powers from the
site builder and author

31. Some WCMs force a binary decision
Traditional CMS
(Fully coupled)
Decoupled CMS
(Headless)
OR

32. The third mode that’s underneath the trend
Decoupled
(Headless)
Hybrid
(Progressively decoupled)

33. The hybrid approach

34. Hybrid Approach
Best of both worlds
Hybrid
(Progressively decoupled)

35. The benefits of
decoupled with
fewer tradeoffs
Hybrid
(Progressively decoupled)

36. Hybrid approach:
Retain Drupal’s editorial capabilities
– Authoring
– Layouts
– Previews
– Workflow

37. Hybrid approach:
Use Drupal to manage presentation layer
– Javascript UI components on top of existing
Drupal front end
– Component placement through the admin UI
– Native content display
– Existing personalization integrations

38. Hybrid Example: Corelle.com
– Pink - Decoupled
component
– Blue - CMS
– Green - CMS, pulled
from ecommerce API
– Orange - Optional
Personalization

39. Hybrid Example: Weather.com?

40. Choose the best
approach

41. Look at the big picture first
Don’t decide to decouple before figuring out why
– Define the use cases and needs first
Think strategic first (long term goals and future state)
– Consider the tactical implementations as they arise
Don’t make decisions at a technical level only
– Combine decision process with both developers and
content authors

42. Thank you!
Questions?