Umbraco Winter Keynote 2025: Past, Present, and Future

The recent Umbraco Winter Keynote 2025 was the perfect blend of a year in review for the innovative CMS and a solid blueprint for their bold vision for 2025. With speakers spanning key leadership roles, keynote highlights were on innovation, community, and operations.  Here’s what stood out:

• Growth Milestones: Umbraco experienced over 30% growth and added 33 new team members, reinforcing its global footprint, particularly with a new fully operational U.S. office in Charlotte. This expansion strengthens Umbraco’s ability to serve its growing North American audience.
• Technological Advancements: The launch of Umbraco Engage marked a significant step forward in personalization. Combined with updates like a more flexible back office, improved multilingual support, and integration of the latest .NET technologies, these advancements positioned Umbraco as a leader in adaptable CMS solutions.
• Sustainability Efforts: With the introduction of a sustainability dashboard, Umbraco provided its users with tools to track carbon emissions at the project level. This initiative underscores Umbraco’s commitment to environmental responsibility and aligns with its broader goal to promote sustainable digital practices.

Predictions for 2025: Key Trends Shaping the Industry

• AI’s Dual Impact: While AI accelerates content creation, it introduces challenges like “AI slop”—low-quality, auto-generated content flooding the web. Umbraco is addressing this by emphasizing high-quality data inputs, effective personalization, and orchestration to maintain content integrity.
• ROI Focus: Businesses are increasingly demanding platforms that drive measurable outcomes and align with their goals. Umbraco’s emphasis on total cost of ownership (TCO) and continuous development addresses these needs.
• The Race to the Middle: CMS platforms are converging toward a balance of modularity and integration, where Umbraco’s composable architecture positions it as a central player.
• Orchestration’s Importance: As content demands grow, seamless collaboration across IT and marketing teams is crucial. Orchestration tools will be key to simplifying these workflows.
• Security’s Role: With cybercrime now estimated as the third-largest global economy, strong security credentials and transparent practices are vital for any CMS provider.

A Vision for 2025: Raising the Bar

• Expand its global community and partner ecosystem, building on its reputation as a user-friendly, community-driven CMS.
• Strengthen its cloud offerings for scalability and composability, ensuring flexibility for developers and reliability for businesses.
• Enhance customer support, moving toward 24-hour coverage on weekdays to better serve its global user base.
• Double down on sustainability initiatives by setting higher benchmarks and encouraging responsible digital practices.

Community at the Core

• Global Reach: With events in India, Dubai, and beyond, 2024 saw a significant increase in community engagement. Meetups experienced a 70% rise in attendance, reflecting the ecosystem’s vibrancy.
• Community Teams: New initiatives like the orchestration team will bring users into the development process, ensuring that updates and features are built with real-world needs in mind.
• Learning and Collaboration: Burstow highlighted the importance of creating spaces for knowledge-sharing. From the revamped community forum to advisory boards and in-person events, Umbraco is dedicated to empowering its users.

Commercial Excellence and Operational Focus

Javier Miranda, COO of Umbraco, emphasized the company’s focus on operational excellence and its customer-centric strategies during the Keynote. His address highlighted the steps Umbraco is taking to empower partners, improve accessibility, and expand its reach. Key points included:

• Expanded Partner Programs: Umbraco fully rolled out its partner program in 2024, strengthening relationships with partners at all levels—Silver, Gold, and Platinum—and providing tailored support and resources.
• Enhanced Customer Support: Umbraco is extending weekday support to cover nearly 24 hours, ensuring partners and clients in diverse time zones receive timely assistance.
• New Data Center in Canada: Aimed at better serving North American clients, the data center will enhance infrastructure reliability and compliance for Canadian partners.
• Boosting Brand Awareness: Recognizing the need for greater visibility, Umbraco is doubling down on transparent marketing, participation in industry events, and closer collaboration with partners to drive awareness in key markets.
• On-Demand Training: With a commitment to addressing the skills gap, Umbraco launched several new training courses, including the Umbraco Application Integration course, enabling users worldwide to become certified on demand.

Exciting Updates for Developers

• Content Release Sets: Developers and marketers can plan and bundle content changes for scheduled releases, streamlining campaign management.
• Flexible Environments: Soon, users will be able to create feature branches and QA environments in Umbraco Cloud, offering greater flexibility in development workflows.
• Integration Enhancements: A new option to bring custom login providers (e.g., Google or Microsoft) into the Umbraco back office will simplify authentication for enterprise users.
• Sustainability Dashboard Updates: Building on the 2024 launch, new features will provide deeper insights and nudges for creating environmentally friendly projects.

Looking Ahead: Codegarden 2025

• More Than 40 Sessions: Attendees can look forward to workshops, hackathons, and talks from industry leaders.
• Award Show: Celebrating standout achievements within the Umbraco community.
• Global Participation: With a growing international presence, Code Garden will continue to serve as a hub for connection and innovation.

Conclusion