Internal Press

VSHN will run the OpenShift platform for the next evolution of the Australian GovCMS

19. Jul 2018

VSHN AG will build and operate the OpenShift platform for amazee.io and Salsa Digital to host the next evolution of GovCMS for the Australian Department of Finance.

amazee.io + Salsa Digital + VSHN

amazee.io and Salsa Digital signed a three-year contract with the Australian Department of Finance to build the next evolution of GovCMS, the Drupal-based content management system used by the Australian Government and VSHN will operate the OpenShift platform and ensure highly available 24/7 operation in close collaboration with them.

In February 2018, the Australian Department of Finance approached the market through a Request for Proposal to continue to operate GovCMS, a content management system based on Drupal. Salsa Digital and amazee.io were selected to build the next evolution of the CMS and VSHN will operate and manage the underlying OpenShift platform to ensure a smooth and high available 24/7 operation of the hosting platform.

GovCMS websites will operate in a fully containerised environment which will reduce and simplify agency development efforts, with the same setup and configuration across environments. All SaaS websites will be highly available, with a guaranteed uptime of 99.99% and have self-healing capabilities. PaaS websites can elect for the higher availability option.

You can find more details in the original press release of the Australian Department of Finance here.

Open Source

The new solution will bring GovCMS onto an open source platform making the entire technology stack open source for the first time. Salsa Digital, amazee.io and VSHN share the values of open source and transparency.

Container based hosting platform based on Lagoon

Existing sites on GovCMS, as well as new government agencies on-boarding, will benefit from a fully open source and container based hosting platform.

Together we will be providing GovCMS with a modern hosting solution based on Lagoon. Lagoon is everything you’ve come to expect from Docker in a Drupal-friendly environment. It is made up of a system of microservices that take code, create Docker Images, push the images into OpenShift/Kubernetes, and monitor deployments.

Lagoon allows developers to develop locally with Docker, with the exact same Docker images and Containers running in production in Kubernetes. This eliminates all of the hassle that comes with different versions or configurations. If it runs locally, it will run in production.

The decision to use Lagoon, coming from the Australian Department of Finance, clearly shows the need for open source platforms in the hosting market. Open source has been at the heart of all we do, and amazee.io was built on the idea that hosting should no longer be the one place in web development where open source solutions weren’t available. This is an incredible day for open source and we are excited to be a part of it.’

The original amazee.io media release can be found here.

If you want to find out more details about Lagoon, our friend Bastian Widmer of amazee.io wrote a guest blog post about hosting Drupal on OpenShift with the help of Lagoon on our VSHN blog.

OpenShift

OpenShift is an open source project by Red Hat, which expands the open source components Docker and Kubernetes through a web based administration interface and the ‘source to image’ (source code to container image) process. With OpenShift, you can centralize the creation of containers to ensure successful testing and to automate deployment to make sure that it isn’t depending on individuals.

Why VSHN?

Thanks to our many years of experience in setting up and operating large-scale and high available OpenShift platforms, we are of course very pleased to be able to secure and manage the 24/7 operation of GovCMS for the Australian Ministry of Finance for Salsa Digital and amazee.io.

Companies such as Adcubum, Die Schweizerische Post, hitobito, HRM Systems, die Mobiliar, Sherpany, SIX, Sobrado, Starticket and many more already trust in our services.

VSHN and amazee.io

VSHN and Amazee Labs, the creators of amazee.io, have been partners since 2015 to offer a new and efficient infrastructure for hosting Drupal. VSHN supported with consulting, engineering and the operation of the servers and through our collaboration, we laid the technological foundation for the future of Drupal hosting. More in-depth information about our partnership with Amazee Labs can be found here.

Salsa Digital will deliver program, application, and support services, and amazee.io will provide the platform and hosting supported by VSHN who will provide OpenShift management.
Salsa Digital is an Australian based digital agency with a legacy in Drupal and open source, and key contributor to the open government movement.

About VSHN AG

VSHN (pronounced ˈvɪʒn like “vision”) is Switzerland’s leading DevOps, Docker, Kubernetes, Openshift and 24/7 cloud operations partner.
Since 2014 we support >300 partners operating >900 servers in the cloud and on-premises with >62000 combined monitored services and are also ISO 27001 certified to ensure the security and confidentiality of customer data.

In addition to close collaboration and consulting we also take on the responsibility for the stability of our services including 24/7 support. We believe in openness and sharing of know how, experience and code (open source).

APPUiO

We also created APPUiO.ch, the Swiss container platform based on Red Hat OpenShift, where we provide managed services on a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) on any infrastructure: public, dedicated, private and on-premises. Reliable open source concepts such as Docker and Kubernetes allow you to develop, operate and scale your application according to your needs. With APPUiO, your applications can be operated both on public clouds as well as on in-house data centers. The platform was originally built by the two IT specialists Puzzle ITC and VSHN AG to professionalize internal IT. Today, APPUiO is already used in production by several customers and supported by a strong community.

In the press


https://www.startupticker.ch/en/news/august-2018/vshn-to-run-the-openshift-platform-for-the-australian-govcms

Markus Speth

Markus is VSHN's CEO and one of the General Managers.

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