Optimizley CMS 12 is on the clock. Greenlight gets you to 13 faster

Digital platforms & CMS

NoA Ignite — The digital consultancy that delivers

Why plan your upgrade now?

Because CMS 12 now runs on two clocks. One has just stopped.

On 10 November 2026, Microsoft ended support for .NET 8. Most CMS 12 sites are built on it. Your site still runs. It just doesn't get Microsoft's security fixes any more. Every month without them, you carry a little more risk. CMS 13 runs on .NET 10, Microsoft's current long-term release. That's supported until November 2028.

The second clock belongs to Optimizely. It now plans one major CMS release a year. That puts CMS 14 in 2027. Under its current policy, CMS 12 support ends when 14 hits the shelves. Extensions are possible, case by case. But are they promised? No. So waiting until 2027 means playing chicken with your sites security. And with all the cybersecurity risks flying around right now, you might just lose.

What does CMS 13 give you beyond a support date?

AI that lives inside your content, not next door to it.

Two pieces now come as standard, and both are in the licence. Optimizely Graph replaces the old search and delivery layer. Your site search, channels, and AI tools all read from one structured source. Opti ID gives your editors one login across Optimizely's products.

Put them together, and your site plugs into Mark, Optimizely's AI. Mark's agents help your team draft, check, translate, and publish inside the CMS. They work from your own content and your own rules. On CMS 12, that's off the table. On CMS 13, it arrives installed. Your team decides how far to switch it on.

It matters outside the CMS too. More of your audience now meets you through AI assistants and AI search. Clean, structured content is how those systems get you right.

Editors win as well. Visual Builder becomes the main way to build pages. An embedded DAM puts images and files in one library. Both make great follow-on projects once the upgrade is safely live. There’s more to it too of course, and you can read more about what to adopt and when.

How does Project Greenlight make the upgrade faster?

It puts Optimizely's own upgrade know-how inside the AI tools our developers already use.

Optimizely's Expert Services team built it from real CMS upgrades. Every project starts with a health check. The AI reads your site's code and writes a report. What has to change. Where the risks sit. Which order works best. It takes minutes, or about an hour at most. You get a scope and a fixed price based on your actual code. Before you commit budget.

Then the AI gets on with the routine work. Framework updates, package upgrades, configuration, and Optimizely's documented breaking changes. It works in stages. Our developers review each one and can roll back anything that looks off.

When it hits code, it can't safely change alone; it stops and says so. Custom search, unique integrations, and editor add-ons usually end up here. Our developers make the call. Then the AI picks up where it left off.

The AI does the heavy lifting. Experts make the judgment calls.

How much time will you save?

That depends on how closely your site follows Optimizely's standard patterns. So we won't name a number before the health check. Honestly, nobody should.

A site built on Optimizely's documented patterns can move much faster. A heavily customised site still needs experienced developers for the parts that make it yours. There, the AI is an assistant, not the lead. Either way, testing is real work. We plan for it properly.

Search is the usual sticking point. CMS 13 retires Search & Navigation in favour of Graph. The deeper your search is wired in, the more of that move stays with people.

One tip if your editors aren't on Opti ID yet. Make the switch while you're still on CMS 12. Single sign-on often waits in your IT team's queue. Doing it first keeps it from holding up the upgrade.

Ready to get moving?

Start with a lunch-length health check. See what your CMS 13 upgrade involves before you commit.

As an Optimizely Project Greenlight partner, NoA Ignite checks your CMS 12 site and maps scope, risk, and effort upfront. Then we plan what’s next, including Mark. Off, on, or custom agents. Your call.

Ready for CMS 13? Get in touch. The race starts here.

George Lavric: Head of Agentic Platforms instead of Head of DXP; +33 677 598 264|george.lavric@noaignite.com

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Optimizley CMS 12 is on the clock. Greenlight gets you to 13 faster