FirstSpirit Cloud vs. Self-Hosted
FirstSpirit hosting models
FirstSpirit is available in two hosting models: Cloud and Self-Hosted (sometimes referred to as On-Premise) to support different organizational requirements and technical strategies. In a Cloud environment, Crownpeak provides and manages the infrastructure, platform services, and updates for you. In a Self-Hosted environment, organizations are fully responsible for their setup, including the installation, configuration, and maintenance of all FirstSpirit components.
| Area | FirstSpirit Cloud | FirstSpirit Self-Hosted |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting responsibility | Crownpeak takes care of hosting, infrastructure, runtime environment, and maintenance. | All infrastructure setup, configuration, and maintenance are handled internally by your team. |
| User and access management | Managed via an external identity provider (Keycloak). Crownpeak oversees provisioning and identity. | Managed internally, using FirstSpirit’s built-in administrator concepts and authentication systems. |
| Patch and maintenance schedule | Platform-level patches are managed by Crownpeak. Regular Patch Days include scheduled downtimes. Urgent fixes are deployed immediately. | Patching and maintenance of your On-Premise instance are handled by your team. Crownpeak offers the newest FirstSpirit and module versions in the Download Portal. |
| Installation and setup | No installation required. The environment is fully provisioned by Crownpeak. Sign in and begin configuration and development. | Requires manual installation of the FirstSpirit server, modules, and configuration by your server administrators. |
Module availability
The modules available depend on the hosting method you choose: Cloud or Self-Hosted.
Modules available in all environments
The following modules are available in both Cloud and Self-hosted environments:
- API-Access
- AppCenter and AppCenter-Slot
- Basic Workflows
- CaaS
- CaaS Connect
- Connect for Salesforce
- Connect for SAP Commerce Cloud
- CorporateContent
- CorporateMedia
- E-Mail Marketing (Pinuts)
- EnterpriseBackup
- FS-CLI
- DynamicYield
- Omnichannel Manager
- SFTP Deployment
- SmartSearch
- TranslationStudio
- VideomanagementPro
- Formcentric
FirstSpirit Cloud modules
The following modules are designed and optimized for Cloud environments:
- Navigation Service*
- S3 Deployment
- URL Redirect*
- SmartSearch Connect*
- Connect for Commerce
- RSYNC Deployment
* These modules can only be used in the cloud environment.
FirstSpirit Self-Hosted modules
The following modules are available for Self-Hosted deployments:
Cloud-specific considerations
FirstSpirit Cloud provides a fully managed platform designed for scalability and security. Because of its managed nature, certain operations that are possible in self-hosted deployments are handled differently or are not available in the Cloud environment. The following section provides an overview.
- File system management: The underlying FirstSpirit file system is fully managed by Crownpeak and can therefore not be accessed.
- Custom WebApp deployment: Custom WebApps are restricted to a local level. Therefore, for security reasons, you can't add custom global Web applications. Note that this refers to Web applications not WebApp components. It is also not possible to activate project specific ContentCreator/Preview Web applications to add custom WebApp components to on a project specific level.
- Server configuration: Server properties are centrally configured and optimized by Crownpeak and can therefore not be manually adjusted.