The resulting Drupal multisite solution has a master website and replicable processes for quickly creating a new site within a series of steps for the creative and content team, but with far less dependency on technical teams for development or deployment.
At Adyax, we pride ourselves on our ability to be flexible and work with a customer’s existing teams, resources, governance, business processes and restrictions, to arrive at an approach that serves both innovation and the best interest of the business. We therefore assessed the situation across geographies and brands, planning the larger picture, yet starting with a single site to validate the proposed structure.
This Drupal enterprise site factory approach allows for the build and launch of many sites for the cost of just a few. A company can quickly spin-up a new site within a replica of the established structure of an existing site, then configure and customize the new site specific to the needs of the brand or business.
For the Johnson & Johnson Drupal multisite project, we made use of the open source Aegir multisite distribution (http://www.aegirproject.org/). The solution allows for many brands to share a common core, while also allowing for technical changes on a per-brand level, including brand by brand support for hosting preferences. The site architecture is common across all sites, making them easier to upgrade and maintain. The approach allows for a Drupal multi-site management program that starts with one site but can be expanded to streamline application and website management initiatives over time as part of a program to improve efficiency, consolidation efforts and reduce costs.