Adobe Experience Manager: What You Need to Know
Curious about what Adobe Experience Manager can do? AEM offers a combination of content management, asset handling, and personalization tools—backed by a modular architecture developers can actually build on. This blog explores how it works, its core features, and why it's a favorite among devs and digital teams alike.
What is AEM?
In case you're new to Adobe Experience Manager, let's begin with a basic overview.
AEM allows organizations to create, manage, and deliver digital experiences across various channels, such as websites, mobile apps, and social media. This software is specifically designed to help marketers, IT teams, and developers work together and build engaging experiences.
Today, AEM is a top choice, with 10,300+ companies leveraging its suite—including trailblazers like Coca-Cola, AT&T, Thinkingbox, and more. Plus, according to Gartner Peer Insights, it holds a 4.4 out of 5-star rating from verified users.
What makes it so popular? More than just a CMS, Adobe Experience Manager blends content management, digital asset management, and personalized experiences into one unified platform. It's a powerful, all-in-one solution.
Special mention goes to its cloud-native architecture. Adobe now prioritizes AEM as a Cloud Service (AEMaaCS), which runs on a scalable, microservices-based infrastructure. This model ensures continuous updates, elastic scalability, and robust security. It also helps teams move faster, minimize downtime, and integrate smoothly with other Adobe tools and third-party platforms.
Related read: Oracle Content Manager vs. Adobe Experience Manager
AEM comes packed with benefits
Skip the tool hopping.
Let's start with the biggest: its all-in-one approach. We've learned that with AEM, you get a centralized resource for managing content and digital assets. There's no need to bounce between tools.
Built-in scalability and flexibility.
AEM is built to handle large volumes of digital content and assets. It can scale up or down based on each business's unique needs. It's also highly customizable and supports integrations with key enterprise tools like CRMs, ERPs, and eCommerce platforms.
Streamlined workflows.
AEM simplifies content creation, management, and delivery, reducing the time and effort required to manage digital experiences. It improves teamwork too, with its built-in collaboration features (not to mention how well it plays with the rest of the Adobe suite).
Robust security at every level.
Unlike many traditional CMS platforms, AEM as a Cloud Service offers enterprise-grade security by design. It includes access controls, user authentication, and encryption to protect your content. Additional protection includes:
- A Git repository architecture that prevents access between customer accounts
- Secure network routing to block unwanted traffic
- Ongoing vulnerability analysis and security updates to keep your business ahead of threats
Smarter, more engaging experiences.
AEM offers built-in analytics to track how users engage with your content across channels. Combined with personalization tools, it helps you deliver tailored experiences based on behavior and preferences—driving deeper engagement and better results.
How AEM Works in Practice
All these features make AEM a powerful tool, but how does it work for developers? Let's look at the capabilities you can tap into.
#1. Sites – Content Management
AEM Sites is the core of Adobe Experience Manager. It powers the creation and delivery of content-rich experiences across web, mobile, and other digital channels from a single platform.
With a low-code setup, AEM Sites helps teams launch high-performance pages fast. For those devs who want to go deeper, the platform offers plenty of flexibility under the hood—like built-in APIs, low-code prototyping tools, and detailed documentation backed by an active open-source community.
Developers can build and extend components, define page layouts with editable templates, and manage content hierarchies through the Java Content Repository. They also leverage reusable Core Components—compatible with frameworks like React and Angular—to speed up development. Sites also supports headless content delivery via RESTful APIs and GraphQL, giving you full flexibility to feed content into SPAs or external platforms.
For lighter use cases—like microsites or marketing campaigns—Adobe also offers Edge Delivery Services. This fast, document-based alternative lets teams publish content from familiar tools like Google Docs and deliver it straight from the edge. It's a great option for developers looking to simplify workflows without sacrificing performance.
Last but not least, AEM includes generative AI tools to automate tasks like rewriting copy, adjusting tone, or applying global content updates—freeing developers to focus on what they do best.
#2. Assets – Digital Asset Management
This dynamic digital asset management (DAM) solution helps you store, find, edit, manage, and deliver up-to-date assets—all from a single source of truth. Cloud-native and built to scale with changing demands, it streamlines collaboration between creative, marketing, and IT teams, enabling the rapid launch of highly tailored experiences.
Plus, because Experience Manager Assets runs on Adobe's cloud, there's no need to worry about storing large files locally. It's fast, scalable, and integrates seamlessly with other Adobe tools to keep your workflows smooth and connected.
#3. Forms – Digital Enrollment
This feature makes it easy to build digital forms, collect e-signatures, and kick off onboarding with simple automation. Whether you're creating forms for internal or external use, digital enrollment and forms are easy to use across multiple platforms. Leveraging these tools saves teams time, reduces manual tasks, and offers users a smoother experience.
#4. Guides – Structured Documentation
Digital Guides is a component content management system (CCMS) that structures content by organizing it into reusable components that can be easily updated or swapped out as needed. This feature supports the creation of digital guides that stay automatically updated, ensuring your documentation and product information are always current. This is essential for maintaining consistency in fast-moving, constantly evolving projects.
#5. Screens – Digital Signage
For projects that involve digital signage or interactive displays—like kiosks or in-store screens—AEM Screens allows teams to manage and schedule content across multiple locations. While often used by marketing and operations, developers can get involved when building custom experiences, integrating third-party data, or setting up dynamic content rules.
What does an AEM developer do?
While Adobe Experience Manager offers a user-friendly interface for marketers and content teams, AEM developers are the ones who truly unlock its technical potential. Their job is to adapt and extend the platform to meet specific business needs, connect it with other tools in the ecosystem, and help deliver content to the right audience—at the right time. How?
By:
- Developing custom components using technologies like Java, HTL, and Sling Models
- Designing reusable templates so content authors can build pages quickly and consistently
- Integrating AEM with external systems such as CRMs, ERPs, and eCommerce platforms using RESTful APIs or GraphQL
- Optimizing site performance through caching strategies and best practices for fast load times
- Collaborating with cross-functional teams—including UX/UI designers, marketers, and other developers—to bring digital experiences to life
AEM isn't just another CMS...
It's a full ecosystem built for flexibility, performance, and personalized experiences at scale. Whether you're a developer looking to dive into its modular architecture or a business exploring enterprise-grade tools, AEM offers the structure and power to grow with your goals.
At Nearsure, we're Adobe Certified Experts helping companies get the most out of their AEM investment. If you're passionate about building scalable, high-impact digital experiences—and want to join a team that values quality, innovation, and collaboration—check out our open roles. We'd love to have you on board.
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