1. Boston University uses WordPress for its largest websites and digital properties, with over 6,000 sites and 8-10 million monthly pageviews across the campus. 2. The university takes a centralized WordPress as a Service approach, with the sites organized and managed through the central IT department. 3. Key aspects of the WPaaS implementation include clear roles and expectations, transparency of capabilities, training, and delivering high quality support through a single codebase and consistent systems.

1. WordPress as a Service
A centralized approach to managing WordPress
at Boston University
#WPaaS

2. Andrew Bauer
Inder Singh
#WPaaS
@awbauer9
@inderpreet99

3. WP at Boston University
• Large scale multi-site, multi-network install
• Highest-traffic web properties all on WP
• 8-10M pageviews per month across 6,369 sites
• Deeply integrated with campus services
(SSO, Profiles, Content Restriction, Calendar)
• Managed through Central IT (“IS&T”)
#WPaaS

4. 3 Key Components
of a great enterprise WordPress installation
#WPaaS

5. Organization
PeopleTech
#WPaaS

6. WordPress
#WPaaS

7. What is
Software as a Service?
1
Application
2
Hosted
Centrally
3
Managed
4
Turn-key
#WPaaS

8. WP 💙 SaaS
• It’s built for it! (Multisite)
• Total control over the environment
• One centralized place to support
#WPaaS

9. WP & Higher Ed
• It’s a service model we know & understand
• Central IT is not the enemy
• Siloed integrations can be tricky
• Improved clarity of support roles
#WPaaS

10. Our WP Platform
From an organizational perspective
#WPaaS

11. #WPaaS

12.
Set clear expectations
#WPaaS
1 2 3 4

13. Transparency of capabilities
#WPaaS
✅ Akismet
✅ BU Access Control
✅ BU Alert
✅ BU Course Feeds
✅ BU Custom CSS Editor
✅ BU Front-end Library
✅ BU Includes
✅ BU Mobile
✅ BU Navigation
✅ BU Profiles
✅ BU Sharing
✅ BU Section Editing
✅ BU Slideshow
✅ BU Text Widget
✅ BU Training Manager
✅ BU Versions
✅ Content Banner
✅ Enable Media Replace
✅ Gravity Forms
✅ Link Lists
✅ Post Details
✅ Random Image
✅ Safe Redirect Manager
✅ WP LaTeX

14. Transparency of capabilities
#WPaaS
✅ Akismet
✅ BU Access Control
✅ BU Alert
✅ BU Course Feeds
✅ BU Custom CSS Editor
✅ BU Front-end Library
✅ BU Includes
✅ BU Mobile
✅ BU Navigation
✅ BU Profiles
✅ BU Sharing
✅ BU Section Editing
✅ BU Slideshow
✅ BU Text Widget
✅ BU Training Manager
✅ BU Versions
✅ Content Banner
✅ Enable Media Replace
✅ Gravity Forms
✅ Link Lists
✅ Post Details
✅ Random Image
✅ Safe Redirect Manager
✅ WP LaTeX

15. #WPaaS

16.
Clearly delineate roles
#WPaaS
1 2 3 4

18.
Provide stellar training
#WPaaS
1 2 3 4

19. #WPaaS

20.
Deliver top-quality service
#WPaaS
1 2 3 4

21. Single Codebase. Consistent Voice.

22. Single Codebase. Consistent Voice.

23. Single Codebase. Consistent Voice.

24. Single Codebase. Consistent Voice.

25. Single Codebase. Consistent Voice.

26. #WPaaS
Themes
Design
Photography
Editorial
Platform
Plugins
Mobile
APIs
MarCom IS&T

27. Development
• How do we maintain this SaaS model?
• What tools do we use?
#WPaaS

28. Dedicated Environments
#WPaaS
PROD/STAGING
TEST
DEVL
SYST

29. PROD
• A multi-network multi-domain environment
• Single version of code
• Lots of mu-plugins that run on all sites
• Common plugins activated per site
#WPaaS

30. PROD
THEMES
• Two large framework themes
• Responsive Framework
• Flexi Framework
• Custom/child themes
• A distinct look for our high-traffic sites

31. TEST
• Integration testing
• Test new functionality
• Matches PROD
• Clone site tool
• Easier duplication of PROD sites
#WPaaS

32. DEVL
• Developers work area
• Separate networks and code for each developer
• Single network for all designers
• Clone site tool
#WPaaS

33. SYST
• Testing of system-level packages for the Sys
Engineers
• Allows Sys Engineers to work independently
#WPaaS

34. Tools
⚒
#WPaaS

35. WP-Deploy
• Build and Deployment tool with a web UI
• Every deploy gets logged!
• Configurations stored in Github repo, easily
rebuild/deploy
• Allows developers to manage WP packages
(plugins, themes, core)
• Integrates with Github to list branches/tags
#WPaaS

36. WP-Deploy

37. Git
• Gitflow process to manage features, hotfixes,
releases to plugins
• Github Pull requests to peer-review changes
#WPaaS

38. Automation
• TravisCI unit tests
• Used to take us over 3-4 months to upgrade
• Aiming to do upgrades within 2 months
• New Relic alerts
• Monitor overall performance based on WP
response times
• Monitor pages and APIs using Synthetics
#WPaaS

39. Slack
• Communication!
• Glue that brings developers, designers, sys
admins, IT team together
• Different locations
• Working remotely
• Channels for each large project
• Maintenance channels
• New Relic alerts
• Discuss broad changes or outages
#WPaaS

40. AWS
• Testing our open source plugins in vanilla WP
installs
• Testing plugins with newer versions of WP
#WPaaS

41. WordPress as a Service
• A centralized SaaS deployment is a sustainable,
scalable model for WP for higher ed
• Cross-departmental collaboration + careful planning
• Automate, automate, automate
• Our clients choose WordPress!
#WPaaS
ORGANIZATION
OPERATIONS

42. Andrew Bauer
Inder Singh
#WPaaS
@awbauer9
@inderpreet99
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