---
title: "Introduction to Managed Cloud"
slug: "introduction-to-managed-cloud"
abstract: "Learn about Sitecore's cloud-based hosting service for XP and XM."
---
# Introduction to Managed Cloud

Sitecore Managed Cloud is a hosting service that enables customers to deploy Sitecore Experience Manager (XM) and Sitecore Experience Platform (XP) on Microsoft Azure. It's an alternative to running the Sitecore platform on-prem or via the public cloud. With Sitecore Managed Cloud, Sitecore actively monitors, manages, and maintains both the infrastructure and the applications, enabling you to:

- Focus on achieving business results faster, while constraining costs and contributing to security and brand reliability.
- Deploy Sitecore on Microsoft Azure’s flexible, enterprise grade cloud platform via Azure App Services (PaaS) or containers with Kubernetes (only available in Managed Cloud Premium) across many Azure regions.
- Reach new markets by scaling your solutions nearly anywhere in the world.

## Sitecore Managed Cloud benefits

Sitecore Managed Cloud offers the following benefits:

- Availability of Sitecore XM and Sitecore XP on Azure according to Microsoft and Sitecore best practices.
- Support for Sitecore XM and Sitecore XP.
- Full access to Sitecore instances and the ability to deploy custom code.
- Focus on achieving business results faster, while constraining costs and ensuring the highest security and brand reliability.
- Monitoring and support for production deployments.
- Integrated support for the Sitecore platform and hosting solution.
- A set of infrastructure services and add-ons available within a service catalog.

## Managed Cloud hosting services and capabilities

Sitecore offers two Managed Cloud hosting services: Managed Cloud Standard (MCS) and Managed Cloud Premium (MCP). These hosting services support a combination of Platform Hosting capabilities:

- Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
    - PaaS 1.0
    - PaaS 2.0
- Containers (Only supported for Managed Cloud Premium)
    - Azure Kubernetes Services

For more information on the platform hosting capabilities, see [Managed Cloud PaaS](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/105/managed-cloud/managed-cloud-paas.html "Managed Cloud PaaS"), and [Managed Cloud Premium Containers](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/105/managed-cloud/managed-cloud-containers.html "Managed Cloud Containers").

### Managed Cloud Standard (MCS)

Managed Cloud Standard supports PaaS 1.0 and PaaS 2.0 as hosting tiers. It does not support Containers.

MCS is a combination of technologies and services on top of the Microsoft Azure platform. There are a wide variety of optimizations available, and Managed Cloud Standard is a fundamentally open product where you adapt the starting [topologies](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/105/managed-cloud/topology-and-tiers-for-managed-cloud-paas.html "Topology and tiers for Managed Cloud PaaS") to suit your implementation patterns.

The scope of Managed Cloud support is defined by the following KB articles:

- PaaS 1.0: [Sitecore Managed Cloud Standard (MCS) – PaaS 1.0 Service Catalog on-demand requests](https://support.sitecore.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0137210) and [Sitecore Managed Cloud Standard (MCS) – PaaS 1.0 Monitoring Metrics](https://support.sitecore.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0633809)
- PaaS 2.0: [Sitecore Managed Cloud Standard – PaaS 2.0. Service catalog on-demand requests](https://support.sitecore.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB1003036) and [Sitecore Managed Cloud – PaaS 2.0. Monitoring Metrics](https://support.sitecore.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB1003045)

### Managed Cloud Premium (MCP)

With Managed Cloud Premium (MCP) you get a more consultative approach to your overall solution architecture and best practices, including security, scaling, non-standard topologies, and hybrid environments (including containers). Ultimately, Managed Cloud Premium provides individualized advisory support alongside your solution development team with an enterprise SLA.  

MCP supports the following hosting tiers:

- Platform-as-a-Service
    - PaaS 1.0
    - PaaS 2.0
- Containers
- Bespoke/customized deployments

![Managed Cloud Premium provides support for performance optimization, scaling, and security.](<https://doc.sitecore.com/api/markdown-image/xp/en/developers/105/managed-cloud/images/Benefits%20of%20Managed%20Cloud%20Premium.png>)

Managed Cloud Premium gives you access to deep Sitecore expertise, including:

- Meetings with a named cloud solutions engineer
- Possibility of joining a weekly standup
- Infrastructure and application observability
- Upgrade planning – jointly owned with the customer
- Sitecore hotfixes, patching, and cleaning databases — jointly owned with the customer
- Scaling and security consultation
- Azure and Sitecore performance optimization