Stanford Vision Lives in the Cloud

Earlier this month, Stanford Web Services (SWS), in partnership with University Communications, launched the new Our Vision website, one of the first Stanford Sites websites created in Acquia Cloud Site Factory (ACSF).

The Our Vision website is home to information and resources about Stanford vision initiatives that were set into motion this year by the President and Provost Office (PPO). The website announces the 19 appointed leadership teams to develop initiatives in the areas of values, research, education and community.

“The website launch was one of the critical aspects of the project,” said Ashwini Gujar, Director of Faculty Information Systems for the Office of the Provost and IT Manager of Special Projects for the Office of the President. “The team at SWS worked closely with us to ensure easy accessibility and a friendly interface for the Stanford user community.”

Flexibility in the cloud

SWS Director Sara Worrell-Berg explained that though her team has other websites in production in ACSF as part of their Sites 2.0 project, the Our Vision website was the first high-profile project to be born in the cloud.  

“This was an exciting one,” Worrell-Berg said. “It’s not every day that the president has feedback on a website.”

With a tight timeline and the need for rapid design cycles with the clients, the cloud environment was the most effective place for project team members Alison Ho, Cynthia Mijares, Joe Knox, and John Bickar to build the new site.

Hosting the Our Vision website, along with other websites, in the cloud benefits website owners and visitors in several ways, including:

• Faster loading time
• Integration with the new Stanford IAM (Identity and Access Management) infrastructure (SAML 2.0)
• On-demand scalability and flexibility
• Improved business continuity and disaster recovery

Sites 2.0 project on track

Since completing the Our Vision website, SWS has launched the newly-rebranded Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute website in ACSF and is on schedule for more high-visibility site launches through the remainder of the year.

The Stanford Sites Cloud Migration Team is also more than halfway to their goal of moving approximately 2,400 Stanford Sites websites to the cloud, an effort that directly supports University IT’s Cloud Transformation Program.

For more about the Sites 2.0 project, visit Sites 2.0 Vision and Strategy.

Learn more

Read the Stanford News story for more about Stanford’s long-range planning implementation and the launch of the Our Vision website.