The Different Faces of Drupal Multi-Site

Drupal Multi-site Installation

We have recently had a number of projects involving some form of multi-site installation.  It is interesting to note that multi-site in most cases is different for each client.  For instance, we have a credit bureau client that uses multi-site to offer their Fortune 500 banking clients access to credit score and history data on some 3 million businesses.  They do this through a Drupal front end that integrates with a custom Web Service to provide accurate credit information on their banking clients. Each banking clients installation is administratively controlled by one central application with a custom theme for each instance.  The multi-site functionality allows for a seamless user experience and very little to no maintenance for the bank.  This deployment now runs 30 plus banks with 4-5 new banks coming online each month.

Achieve has a client in the wedding industry that recently built a Drupal site that they were able to mirror for a partnership with a nationally known Bridal retailer.  The partner site uses the same exact code base and database structure however is a completely independent version of the code.  The goal is to be able to scale all versions of the website independently and therefore allow complete ownership by the client partner.  Ultimately both sites will also integrate with Salesforce.com and Eloqua, which will allow for management of the product offering and tracking of the marketing efforts. This deployment is the first of a half dozen planned in the next 18 months

In a third instance, Achieve Internet is working with a start-up that is looking to set up vertical business units.  Since the site is a Social Network they are planning on allowing members to participate across business units by use of a single-sign-on. They will have one Parent site that pushes content to their Child sites, allowing members to interact with any vertical they are approved entry. The Child sites may or may not be in participation with a third party, which means each site will have different administrative rules and integration points.  Achieve has advised this particular client that the desire to set up a Super Admin with the ability to have one login to all sites across the network may not be cost effective. The concern is since this is a startup this kind of complexity may restrict future budget flexibility.

All three examples of the use of Drupal's multi-site capabilities are vastly different and therefore the most critical part of each project is the initial Architecture and Planning of the development process. Without proper understanding of the business goals and the construction of a solid foundation multi-site can be very ineffective and costly.