UIC Enhancing University Website Infrastructure with Pantheon
Red Infrastructure Modernization
This summer, Technology Solutions is looking forward to migrating the Red Multisite Infrastructure to Pantheon, a website operations platform that will improve the stability and scalability of Red. With Pantheon, UIC’s Red websites are guaranteed to remain 99.99% operational during traffic spikes or server reboots and can expand without the risk of outgrowing infrastructure, optimizing staff resources.
The Red infrastructure migration is scheduled to begin Tuesday, August 30 at 5:00pm through Monday, September 5, 2022 at 5:00pm CT. During migration, downtime is not expected to occur and Red websites will remain operational, however, there will be a content freeze period. Please read on for more information.
What is Red Multisite? Heading link
WordPress for UIC, also known as Red, is the university’s multisite network used for creating and managing UIC websites. Red enables UIC community members to easily create, build, and maintain UIC websites, while maintaining a consistent look and feel.
Since the first Red site launched in November 2016, Red has grown to more than 500 live websites with another 228 in development (as of June 2022). In the last 12 months, there were more than 25 million pageviews across UIC’s Red websites. It’s amazing what a single on-premise database and server have done under the leadership of our limited staff and resources.
Challenges with the Red Multisite Heading link
Due to significant growth, the Red network is presently at risk of outgrowing its current infrastructure, which can lead to system failures, downtime, and loss of data. Moreover, our infrastructure does not meet modern standards, and servers lack the capabilities to properly handle a large influx of traffic.
Because of this, our staff spends 75+ hours a week on bug fixes, enhancing site performance, and addressing technical debt (i.e. shortcuts and workarounds we will eventually have to invest time and talent into to resolve) leaving no time for innovation or development.
To mitigate risk and get our infrastructure up-to-date, Technology Solutions would have to build a completely new infrastructure (costing hundreds of thousands of dollars), or leverage a third-party solution.
After careful consideration and review, UIC Technology Solutions has decided to partner with Pantheon, a Website Operations Platform.
Quote Heading link
The transition to a Website Operations Platform will not only improve Red’s stability and scalability, but it will also help alleviate the obstacles our development teams encounter so we can focus on other enhancements and innovation.
| Director, Software Development & Delivery
Partnering with Pantheon Heading link
The transition to Pantheon guarantees high stability and scalability for our public-facing sites, offers a more resilient and mature infrastructure than our in-house servers, and has many other benefits including:
- Minimizes Red site outages & downtime
Guaranteed 99.99% operational uptime so Red websites will be able to handle traffic spikes and server reboots without bringing other sites down - Allows staff resource reallocation & optimization
Pantheon is a self-sustaining platform that will enable teams to reallocate resources and focus on other enhancements or projects - Enables automation and agile workflows for fast deployments
Increases ease of software update management and support for maintaining multisite security, reliability and performance - Grants access to data & insights
Provides reporting on web activity related to infrastructure, security and logging. This helps find, debug, and isolate current or potential problems on sites. - Offers collaboration tools
Pantheon has developer-friendly tools and workflows that will help strengthen our growing Red developer community and encourages collaboration - Includes automated backups
A best practice for web management, automated site backups are snapshots of all the files and data on websites and can be recalled if necessary.
Quote 2 Heading link
With the Red Infrastructure migrating to Pathenon, UIC Red can continue to expand and increase the number of Red sites and users without the risk of outgrowing infrastructure, compromising site performance, or disrupting the user experience.
| Director, Digital Experience
Migration Timeline Heading link
Technology Solutions will be migrating the Red multisite infrastructure from an on-campus data center to a cloud-based platform beginning Tuesday, August 30 at 5:00pm through Monday, September 5.
Downtime is not expected but may occur.
As a result of this migration, any changes made to Red websites by Red Admins between Tuesday, August 30th at 5:00PM CT and Monday, September 5th at 11:59pm CT, will NOT appear on the new environment after the migration is complete.
Operate with Excellence Heading link
The modernization of the Red Multisite Infrastructure supports UIC’s IT Strategy and the Operate with Excellence Initiative. The migration of Red infrastructure to Pantheon supports updating services with current-generation, cloud-first solutions.
Get Support & Updates on the Migration Heading link
- To report an outage, visit the UIC Help Center and select Report an IT Problem.
- For more information on the migration, answers to frequently asked questions, and support, visit the Red Infrastructure Modernization page.
- To view reported issues, outages and updates visit the 8/30-9/5 – Technology Solutions Migrating Red Website Infrastructure Service Status post.