In recent months, PreviousNext has been privileged to be part of Microsoft’s APAC Open Source Partner Accelerator program. With Microsoft now providing full support for open source technologies running on the Azure cloud services platform, the partner program has focused on initiatives for PreviousNext to deploy, manage and support customer’s Drupal sites hosted on Microsoft Azure.
As one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive cloud services platforms, Azure is committed to being an open and flexible platform no matter what software is running. Maintaining two Australian Signals Directorate Certified Cloud Services data centres, Azure provides a compelling option for any customers seeking to deploy secure and scalable Drupal websites in the cloud, particularly in the government sector.
Our first initiative with Microsoft will be to offer a fully managed service for aGov websites hosted on Azure. aGov is the open Drupal platform for building Australian Government standards-compliant websites. First released in 2013 as a free open source distribution on Drupal.org and now in use on around 500 websites, the platform provides all of the features required to meet application security, accessibility and branding requirements by the Australian Government as a default install.
aGov can then be customised with any of Drupal 7’s 11,000+ free modules and integrated with external services, such as Active Directory, Sharepoint or Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This flexibility to have complete control of the code base has seen aGov used as the base install for prominent federal, state and local government organisations.
Already available as a free Azure install on VM Depot, aGov will soon be available on the Azure Marketplace.
For organisations requiring a fully managed service for maintaining, supporting and enhancing their aGov sites, PreviousNext can provide a comprehensive Service Level Agreement on top of base Azure hosting fees. These SLAs can also be used for any Drupal website hosted on Azure, applicable to clients outside the government sector.
A typical aGov Service Level Agreement includes the following guarantees and services:
- Free setup of individual server environments for improved security and flexibility
- 99.95% Azure uptime guarantee
- 24/7 Azure infrastructure support
- 24/7 aGov application support
- Security updates and maintenance
- Automated website monitoring
- Automated backups and distaster recovery
- Denial of Service Attack Prevention
- Site archiving to National Archives of Australia standards
- Log file storage for 7 years
Optional services include:
- Independent WCAG 2.0 Accessibility Audits
- Independent Security Audits
- Independent SEO Audits
- Ongoing enhancement services, including content, design, development.
For more details about how you can succeed with Drupal and aGov on Azure, please get in touch.
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