DrupalCon Denver 2012: SCALING AND SUPPORTING 200 MAJOR ARTIST SITES IN THE CLOUD

This talk explores the challenges faced by a major media company as it sought to consolidate its numerous sites onto a single hosted web platform using Drupal. The speaker discusses how the existing platform, while successful in site deployment and feature development, struggled with operational and marketing needs, leading to scalability issues. Key improvements implemented include DNS database failover, multi-data center high availability, and various caching strategies utilizing Varnish and Akamai CDN, paving the way for a robust platform that supports both predictable and unpredictable web traffic loads. The session also highlights the migration of over 120 media sites to a managed cloud environment and the enhancement of tools for operations and marketing teams through the Acquia Network and Drupal Gardens. It addresses critical questions regarding the requirements for hosting a large number of music artists, the motivations for cloud migration, and the necessary tools and optimizations for managing hundreds of sites.