How Structured Content Migration Enables Scalable Digital Experience Platforms

Introduction

For enterprise leaders investing in a new digital experience platform (DXP), the launch often comes with the expectation of immediate business impact,  streamlined operations, improved user experience, and faster content delivery.

But many replatforming initiatives stumble right out of the gate. Not because the technology is wrong, but because the content migration is treated as a mechanical task, not a strategic enabler.

Moving content from a legacy CMS to a modern DXP isn’t just about transferring data. It’s about preparing your content to take full advantage of a new platform’s capabilities,  from editorial workflows to search and personalization.

This is exactly the challenge we tackled for a leading training and certification organization. With over 1,900 content items across multiple types, from news and resources to media and events, the stakes were high. A poorly executed migration would have led to broken experiences, poor search, and editorial headaches.

Instead, we helped the organization move with clarity by aligning technical execution with editorial structure, business goals, and long-term scalability.

The Real Risk: Why CMS Migrations Often Fail To Deliver Value

The most common misconception about content migration is that it’s just a “lift and shift.” Export the data, import it into the new system, and you’re done.

But content is rarely that simple.

• URL structures may break without proper mapping
• Taxonomies and tags may get lost or fragmented
• Media assets may become disconnected from their parent nodes
• Content relationships may be broken or flattened
• Editorial formatting may no longer fit the design system
• Search and filter systems may no longer index legacy formats

And perhaps most dangerously, old content often clutters the new system with outdated, duplicative, or low-quality material,  undermining the brand and confusing users.

That’s why Axelerant treats migration as a design and architecture challenge,  not just a technical one.

Axelerant’s Migration Framework: Structured, Flexible, Sustainable

When approached strategically, migration becomes a moment of transformation,  a chance to clean up legacy debt and relaunch with structured, scalable systems.

Here’s how we executed that approach:

A. Audit And Strategy Phase

We began by mapping the client’s legacy Kentico system, performing a comprehensive inventory of 1,900+ content items across:

• News, Events, Resources, Media Assets, and Landing Pages
• Legacy content formats, including rich text, embedded HTML, PDFs, and external links
• Mixed usage of taxonomy and inconsistent editorial structures

The audit phase focused on identifying what to migrate, and just as importantly, what to retire. Legacy drafts, outdated assets, and redundant structures were excluded from the scope to create a clean, editorially purposeful dataset ready for Drupal.

B. Technical Execution With The Drupal Migration API Stack

We used Drupal’s Migrate API, along with Migrate Plus and Migrate Tools, to orchestrate a highly controlled migration process. Our hybrid extraction strategy included:

• Kentico’s REST API for JSON-based content and metadata
• Curated CSV inputs for human-verified entries
• Direct SQL queries to extract deeply embedded relationships and media references

This enabled a precise, structured import of data into Drupal 11, while maintaining parent-child relationships, taxonomy alignment, and media file integrity.

C. Component-Level Migration For Layout And Relationships

Rather than treating content as monolithic blobs, we broke it down into layout-compatible components:

• Hero images with CTA overlays
• Inline media sections with captions
• Text blocks, callouts, and logos
• Downloadable resources with metadata

These were mapped directly into Drupal’s Layout Builder structure,  allowing editors to not only use the content as-is, but to extend and reuse it going forward.

D. Preparing For Search And Discovery

To support both immediate usability and future personalization goals, we enriched the content with structured metadata:

• Tags, topics, audience segmentation, and content types
• Publication and update dates
• Source formats and accessibility indicators

This set the foundation for the platform’s planned integrations with Algolia, including full indexing of PDFs and downloadable media,  ensuring high-quality search and filtering across the experience.

Editorial Experience By Design

While the migration was technically complex, the real measure of success came from how editors interacted with the new system.

We designed every content model to support:

• Reusable layout blocks compatible with Drupal Layout Builder
• Clean separation of content, media, and metadata
• Editorial roles and workflows for structured governance
• Flexible content assembly using field guidance and tokenized design patterns

Post-migration, the editorial team was able to:

• Publish new pages using drag-and-drop assembly
• Update existing content without breaking layout or design
• Quickly classify, tag, and link related content
• Confidently manage files and media without dev support

Migration became an enabler,  not a hurdle.

Business Outcomes: Why Structured Migration Drives Strategic Value

This project didn’t just result in a successful data transfer. It enabled meaningful transformation at the operational, technical, and business levels. Here’s how:

1. Accelerated Time To Value Through Operational Readiness

Most CMS replatforming projects experience delays post-launch due to content issues,  formatting mismatches, missing media, broken URLs, or the need for content rework. Because we migrated content into modular, design-aligned components with clear editorial structures, the platform was launch-ready on day one. Content worked within the design system, not against it. Editors could begin managing and publishing without retraining or cleanup, enabling faster ROI realization from the new Drupal 11 DXP.

2. Reduction Of Technical Debt Through Smart Content Curation

Legacy platforms tend to accumulate unused or low-value content: draft nodes, outdated resources, duplicated materials, or disconnected media. Rather than blindly lifting all of it into the new system, we conducted a content-level audit and applied editorial filters to exclude what wasn’t worth migrating. This reduced content bloat, preserved editorial quality, and ensured the new platform launched with only what was usable, relevant, and high-performing.

3. Increased Editorial Agility And Reduced Developer Dependency

The migrated content was mapped directly into Drupal's Layout Builder-compatible structure. Editors no longer needed developers to build or update layouts; they could use drag-and-drop blocks to create landing pages, embed documents, add media, or update event information. This editorial autonomy reduced the time and cost of content operations and gave business units the flexibility to launch campaigns or publish updates in real time, without bottlenecks.

4. Improved Search, Discoverability, And Content Reuse

We structured content metadata, such as tags, categories, topics, dates, and file types, directly into the migration layer. This enabled advanced search filtering and indexing via platforms like Algolia, which was planned for integration. Users would now be able to discover content not only by title or date, but by relevance, file format, and topical grouping, including deep indexing of PDFs and media. This unlocked greater visibility for high-value content across the site.

5. Lower Total Cost Of Ownership Over The Platform Lifecycle

By migrating structured content instead of legacy blob formats, the editorial model became future-ready,  built for personalization, localization, and scalable reuse. As the platform grows, there will be no need for costly reengineering of content types or editorial workflows. What was delivered was not just a migrated database; it was a governed, extensible content system that reduced the need for future remediation, retraining, or third-party fixes.

6. Realization Of Design System ROI Through Operationalization

Instead of treating design and migration as separate concerns, our approach mapped content structures to design tokens and layout standards from the outset. Hero sections, text + media patterns, CTAs, filters,  all were embedded into reusable Drupal components. This meant that the client’s investment in design was activated through the CMS, not left in static PDFs or Figma files. Editorial teams now build within a living design system, not outside of it.

Migrations Should Be A Launchpad And Not A Liability 

Too often, content migration is seen as a necessary evil, a rushed task that lives at the bottom of the replatforming checklist.

But when executed with structure, precision, and long-term thinking, content migration becomes one of the most powerful strategic levers in a DXP transformation.

It’s the moment where you:

• Clean up content debt
• Reimagine editorial workflows
• Enable better governance
• Prepare for personalization and discovery
• And start fresh, with the confidence that your content is as future-ready as your platform

At Axelerant, we don’t just migrate content. We transform it into a foundation for clarity, scale, and digital success.