Welcome to the very first episode of Digital Transformation Survivors! In this series, we explore the challenges and breakthroughs that come with managing complex web estates and digital transformation.
In this epsiode Filip shares invaluable insights on stability, predictability, and how enterprises can future-proof their digital strategies without getting locked into rigid solutions. Plus, we hear why Umbraco is focused on foundation-first innovation—holding off on AI hype until the tech proves its long-term value.
[00:00:00] Jules:
Welcome to Digital Transformation Survivors, the podcast where we speak with industry professionals about their challenges and how they navigate complex web estates.
I’m Julian Tedstone, Managing Director at Coherence. We specialize in helping businesses manage complex websites and website portfolios—particularly in environments with multiple sites, markets, audiences, or stages in the user journey.
The goal of this podcast is to explore these unique challenges and learn from experts—whether they’re technologists, business leaders, or marketing practitioners.
Today, I’m excited to introduce our guest: Filip Bech-Larsen, Chief Technology Officer for Umbraco CMS.
If you haven’t heard of Umbraco—where have you been? It likely powers some of your favorite websites:
✅ Domino’s Pizza
✅ Mercedes-Benz
✅ Carlsberg Group
It’s a powerful open-source CMS built on the .NET framework, backed by a volunteer community of over 200,000 developers.
So who better than Filip to help us navigate this space?
Just a quick note—today’s episode is brought to you in partnership with Moriyama, specialists in Umbraco.
Filip, welcome to Digital Transformation Survivors! How are you doing this morning?
[00:01:54] Filip:
Thanks so much, Jules. Thanks for having me!
I’m doing really well—it’s a nice day.
[00:01:57] Jules:
Good to hear! We’re feeling especially festive here at Digital Transformation Survivors—really getting into the Christmas spirit at the time of recording.
So, did I leave anything out in your introduction? Anything else I should have mentioned?
[00:02:16] Filip:
I think you covered the basics! But just to add a little more context—while Umbraco is a widely used open-source .NET CMS, we’re also backed by a professional company.
We offer a cloud hosting service—and that’s what helps fund further development of the open-source product.
This means businesses can: 🔹 Use Umbraco for free—with no strings attached 🔹 Access professional hosting & support when needed
That’s why large enterprises shouldn’t worry about building on Umbraco—we’re not going anywhere. In fact, we’ve been growing at around 25% per year for the past 10 years.
[00:02:56] Jules:
That’s fascinating because, not too long ago, open-source was often viewed with skepticism—especially by enterprises.
But over time, that perception has completely reversed.
Can you talk us through that shift? How have things changed in your experience?
[00:03:20] Filip:
You’re absolutely right. If you look at Umbraco 10 years ago, we were just five guys in a basement!
It’s pretty crazy that enterprises trusted us back then. But some did—and those who took the plunge have seen their investment really pay off.
Back then, open-source was often seen as a risk. Today, enterprises realize it’s actually a superpower.
Why? Because open-source:
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Improves security—more people contributing means more bugs are found and fixed quickly
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Encourages flexibility—it’s not controlled by one company in an ivory tower
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Creates a strong ecosystem—thousands of developers help evolve the product
Of course, security is often a concern, but we have a stringent process for handling vulnerabilities.
For example, if a security issue is found:
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We fix it before it’s made public
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Cloud customers get security updates automatically
That’s why I’d argue open-source software is actually more secure than many closed-source alternatives.
[00:05:23] Jules:
That’s a powerful shift!
Now, let’s zoom in on Umbraco today.
What kinds of web applications are built on Umbraco? And in the context of complex web estates, what kinds of user experiences does it support?
[00:06:06] Filip:
The beauty of Umbraco is that it’s used by everyone—from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies.
For example:
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A local hairdresser might use Umbraco for a simple website
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Carlsberg, a global brand, uses it to power hundreds of websites
A great case study is Carlsberg. They frequently acquire new breweries—which means they need to launch new brand websites quickly.
Rather than managing 20 different CMS platforms, they use:
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A centralized Umbraco Cloud setup
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Pre-built templates that allow them to spin up new sites quickly
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A single master site that can push updates to all their brands
This means:
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Each brewery maintains its unique identity
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Carlsberg still controls security & performance centrally
Beyond websites, Umbraco is also used in headless setups—powering:
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Mobile apps
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IoT devices (e.g., smart fridges!)
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Digital signage
[00:08:29] Jules:
I love the idea of a major international brand running its web estate on a Raspberry Pi!
Speaking of scalability, I want to talk about composability.
We hear a lot about composable architectures—but what does composable mean to you?
[00:13:27] Filip:
Great question!
At its core, composability is about choosing the best individual tools for your needs rather than buying an all-in-one monolithic suite.
So instead of using one vendor for everything (CMS, e-commerce, marketing automation, ERP), composable architecture lets you:
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Pick best-in-class tools for each area
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Mix & match components that suit your business
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Avoid vendor lock-in
But here’s the problem: Many businesses end up with “composable regret”—where they get:
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Higher costs—multiple licenses instead of one
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More complexity—difficult integrations between separate tools
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Tightly coupled systems—defeating the whole point of composability
The key to making composability work is proper orchestration. We believe there’s a better way to manage content across different systems—without losing flexibility or control.
[00:26:54] Jules:
That’s a brilliant insight.
Large enterprises don’t just need flexibility—they need predictability.
They want to:
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Know when upgrades are coming
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Understand how long older versions will be supported
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Avoid unexpected changes that impact their web estate
That’s a really important factor when investing in a CMS.
[00:38:04] Filip:
Exactly!
Enterprises don’t want surprises. They want stable, predictable releases—which is why Umbraco follows a fixed release schedule.
For example:
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We align our release cycles with Microsoft’s .NET updates
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Every new long-term support (LTS) version of .NET gets an Umbraco LTS update shortly after
This way, developers always have access to the latest technology, but we don’t introduce risky changes before they’re ready.
[00:39:00] Jules:
To use your house analogy, you don’t want to innovate with the experience of using the stairs, do you?
You want the stairs to be completely predictable—an interchangeable experience, just like every other staircase people use.
So let’s not get funky with the stairs!
That leads me to something I wanted to highlight from our conversation so far—sustainability.
In your recent London talk, you didn’t just mention it—you outlined clear actions within the Umbraco program to support sustainability.
How is Umbraco helping enterprises make better sustainability decisions? What features support this goal, and where do you see it heading?
[00:40:11] Filip:
Great question! Sustainability is a big focus area for us, and it comes in a few key parts.
Optimizing Umbraco’s Performance
One of the biggest things we can do is make Umbraco as efficient as possible.
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The more visitors your Umbraco site can handle before needing to scale up, the better.
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This directly reduces CO₂ emissions—fewer servers, less energy, lower environmental impact.
We’re already performing well in this area, especially compared to competitors. A lot of this comes from being built on .NET—and we ensure Umbraco always runs on the latest version.
For example:
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Upgrading from .NET 7 to .NET 8 gives a 10% performance boost.
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That’s free efficiency, just by keeping your Umbraco version up to date.
Understanding & Measuring Sustainability
We believe you can’t improve what you don’t measure.
That’s why in Umbraco Cloud, we provide a dashboard showing:
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The CO₂ emissions per environment (production, staging, etc.).
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Monthly comparisons—so you can see trends over time.
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The impact of traffic spikes, like Black Friday.
This helps businesses:
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See the real environmental cost of their sites.
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Understand the impact of changes (e.g., did a redesign improve or worsen sustainability?).
Sustainable Development Best Practices
We’re also working with community experts to create a best practices guide for building sustainable Umbraco projects.
This includes:
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Efficient templating to reduce redundant processing.
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Optimizing images & assets for faster, lower-energy loading.
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Caching strategies to reduce unnecessary computing power.
By educating developers and providing visibility into sustainability metrics, we hope to make low-carbon web development the norm.
[00:45:09] Jules:
That came across really strongly in your London talk, Filip.
Another topic I wanted to explore is editor experience—especially for marketers and content teams.
These teams are constantly testing, optimizing, and iterating on their content. They need to:
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Hypothesize and test different messaging.
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Analyze user behavior to refine experiences.
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Run A/B tests to improve engagement.
The challenge? Opportunity cost.
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If an editor wants to run a simple split test, how long does it take?
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Can they do it themselves in a few clicks?
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Or does it require a multi-disciplinary team of developers, UX designers, QA, and analysts—turning a simple experiment into a costly, multi-week project?
How does Umbraco reduce the opportunity cost of learning about user behavior?
[00:46:51] Filip:
We’ve thought about this a lot, and that’s exactly why we built Umbraco Engage.
We actually prefer the word “Engage” over “Optimize”—because optimization can sound a bit… sneaky, like you’re trying to manipulate users.
But engagement? That’s about helping users have a better experience.
How Umbraco Engage Helps Editors
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Point-and-click content personalization—no developers needed.
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A/B testing built into the CMS (e.g., blue button vs. red button).
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Pre-built audience segmentation—return visitors, past buyers, geographic targeting, etc.
For example, say you want to:
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Show different headlines to first-time visitors vs. returning customers.
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Test a different product image on mobile vs. desktop.
With Umbraco Engage, editors can set this up in minutes.
And the feedback has been amazing.
A UK-based customer told us they previously used a competing product for personalization, but after seeing Engage, they were blown away:
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It gave them the same functionality.
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It was way easier to use.
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It cost’s a fraction of the price.
That’s the goal—make powerful tools accessible, without complexity or high costs.
[00:50:59] Jules:
That’s really interesting.
Another term that gets thrown around a lot—often in conversations about composability—is headless CMS.
Can you break it down for us?
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What does “headless” actually mean?
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What problem is it solving?
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And how effective is it as an approach?
[00:52:20] Filip:
Great question!
At its core, headless CMS means separating the content from the presentation layer.
How Traditional CMS Works
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The CMS stores content
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It also renders web pages (e.g., HTML templates)
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It serves the entire page to users
How Headless CMS Works
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The CMS only stores content
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It provides data via APIs
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The website, app, or device fetches content dynamically
This makes headless ideal for multi-platform experiences:
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Mobile apps
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Game consoles
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Web apps with dynamic frontends
But not every project needs headless.
The Pitfall: “Headless Hype”
We see a lot of RFPs where companies demand “headless”—but they don’t actually need it.
In many cases, it just adds complexity—separate hosting, extra API calls, and double the infrastructure costs.
If your primary experience is a website, you might not need headless at all.
That’s why Umbraco is hybrid—you get headless APIs if you need them, but you can also use traditional rendering.
It’s about choosing the right tool for the job.
[00:57:59] Jules:
That’s a wise perspective.
So, as we wrap up—what’s your one piece of advice for enterprises choosing a CMS?
[00:58:10] Filip:
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Choose what’s right for you.
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Focus on predictability, security, and cost.
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Go with a CMS that cares about people—both your users and your internal teams.
At the end of the day, a CMS is a tool for humans.
If your editors are frustrated, if content workflows are slow, or if technical debt builds up—you’ll feel it in business results.
That’s why human-centered software wins.
[00:59:59] Jules:
Filip, this has been an amazing conversation.
Thank you for joining us on Digital Transformation Survivors!
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