Working with Northern as your AEM Sites partner

Senior-led from start to finish

The senior team that designs your AEM Sites solution stays involved through development, testing, and launch, so the decisions made at the start carry through to the finished site.

Built for the people who publish

We design components, templates, and workflows around how your authors work, then train your team and document everything so they can run the site day to day.

Phased delivery built around your roadmap

We start with the release that delivers value soonest and plan the rest in phases, so each step has a clear scope, timeline, and outcome. Engagements run on retainer, fixed fee, or time and materials, whichever fits how your team plans and budgets.

What is Adobe Experience Manager Sites?

Adobe Experience Manager Sites is Adobe's enterprise content management system for building and running websites. It supports headless, headful, or hybrid delivery, so the same content can feed a website, an app, or another channel. Teams can author pages in a visual editor or, with Edge Delivery Services, in Microsoft SharePoint (using Word in the browser) or Google Docs, and AEM Sites connects with Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target, Adobe Real-Time CDP, and Adobe Journey Optimizer.

Illustration of one web page previewed at desktop, tablet, and mobile sizes, with a phone showing the mobile version ready to publish.

Our AEM development services

01

AEM Sites implementation and architecture

New sites and rebuilds on AEM as a Cloud Service, plus migrations from AEM 6.5 and AEM 6.5 LTS, with the delivery model (headless, headful, or hybrid) chosen around where your content needs to go.

02

Edge Delivery Services and the Universal Editor

We build websites on Edge Delivery Services, so authors can work in the Universal Editor or write pages in Microsoft SharePoint (using Word in the browser) or Google Docs. Edge Delivery Services is built differently from a traditional AEM site, so if you already run AEM, we’ll show you which features and custom code would carry over before you commit. Five of our developers have completed Adobe's Edge Delivery Services developer course.

03

Components and design systems

Reusable components built on or extending AEM Core Components and tied to your design system, so authors can assemble new pages from parts that already exist. Editable templates, content policies, and the Style System let one component library carry each brand’s look, and Multi Site Manager (MSM) keeps shared content in sync across multi-brand, multi-lingual, or multi-regional sites.

04

Personalization with Adobe Target and Adobe Experience Platform

We connect AEM to Adobe Target and Adobe Real-Time CDP on Adobe Experience Platform, so Experience Fragments and Content Fragments can be served as personalized offers to audiences based on behavior and unified profiles.

05

Performance, SEO, and accessibility

Core Web Vitals improvements through CDN and Dispatcher caching, technical SEO, and accessibility built to WCAG 2.1 AA, which meets AODA requirements.

06

AEM support and developers for your team

After launch, we handle service packs and upgrades on AEM 6.5, release validation and Cloud Manager pipeline management on AEM as a Cloud Service, and ongoing improvements, with people who already know your build. Our senior AEM developers and architects can also join your team and take direction from your leads, for a set number of hours each week or month.

AEM Sites client stories

Asset management · AEM as a Cloud Service migration

A Fortune 500 financial services company needed to move two fund websites, one for investors and one for financial professionals, off AEM 6.5 on Adobe Managed Services. Northern moved both to AEM as a Cloud Service and replaced manual fund data syncs with an automated integration, including an observability dashboard and on-demand sync controls. Both sites launched in December 2025.

Financial services · Sitecore to AEM as a Cloud Service migration

A second Fortune 500 financial services company, which has worked with our team on AEM Assets for more than five years, brought Northern in to migrate its public website from Sitecore to AEM as a Cloud Service in 2025. Northern stayed on for a second phase of AEM Sites work.

Northern’s team holds 32 active Adobe certifications across Adobe Commerce, Experience Manager, and Workfront, and our AEM Sites work is led by an Adobe Certified Master, Adobe Experience Manager Sites Architect.

How an AEM Sites engagement runs

  1. Assess

    We review your current site, content model, integrations, and authoring setup. For AEM 6.5 sites, that includes Adobe’s Best Practices Analyzer and Cloud Acceleration Manager. Then we agree on goals and how you’ll measure them.

  2. Plan

    You get a phased roadmap with scope and timing for each release, starting with what your team can launch and run first.

  3. Build and launch

    Our team builds and tests each release, and trains your authors before it goes live.

  4. Measure and improve

    After launch, we check results against the goals set within the assessment and use what we learn to plan the next release.

Still on AEM 6.5?

Support for AEM 6.5 on Adobe Managed Services ended August 31, 2026. According to Adobe Experience League, core support for on-premises AEM 6.5 ends February 28, 2027, and extended support, limited to critical fixes, ends February 28, 2028. The path forward is AEM as a Cloud Service. AEM 6.5 LTS extends your runway but doesn’t change the platform, so we recommend it only when AEM as a Cloud Service isn’t an option, for example for government organizations that require a certification AEM as a Cloud Service doesn’t yet hold. Our AEM as a Cloud Service migration services page covers how we handle that move.

Adobe Managed Services August 31, 2026 Support ended
On-premises February 28, 2027 Core support ends
On-premises February 28, 2028 Extended support for critical fixes ends

Speak with an AEM Sites expert

Fill out the form and an AEM Sites expert will follow up to talk through where your site stands. No preparation required. The conversation covers

Your current AEM Sites version, hosting, and authoring setup
Your path from AEM 6.5 to AEM as a Cloud Service, and whether any compliance requirements affect it
Which components, integrations, or delivery changes would help your team most
What a first phase could include and how engagements are structured
Planning your move off AEM 6.5? Read Beau’s take on AEM 6.5 end of life

“Our goal is to make leaving AEM 6.5 uneventful. We assess what you have, flag what won’t carry over, and plan the move so your team isn’t rebuilding twice.”

Beau Brewer

Beau Brewer 
Partner and VP, Content Supply Chain at Northern

Common questions about AEM development services

Explore more on Adobe Experience Manager

AEM as a Cloud Service migration journey, from readiness assessment and planning through content and code refactoring to go-live. Service

AEM as a Cloud Service Migration Services

How Northern moves AEM 6.5 sites to AEM as a Cloud Service, from readiness assessment and planning through content migration, code refactoring, and go-live.

Explore the service →

Laptop showing a product image library in AEM Assets, with an asset detail panel and the Adobe logo. Service

AEM Assets Services

Northern implements and optimizes AEM Assets as your digital asset management system, so teams can organize, find, and reuse assets across sites and channels.

Explore the service →

Beau Brewer, Partner and VP, Content Supply Chain at Northern, next to the title AEM 6.5 end of life. Article

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) 6.5 is End of Life in Less Than 1 Year: Is It Time to Panic?

Beau Brewer on the three AEM 6.5 end of life dates, what each one means for your setup, and why AEM as a Cloud Service is the long-term path.

Read the article →