How Delicious Simplicity Built a Major Media Drupal Site in Less Than 1 Month

Delicious Simplicity is a boutique design and development company based in Los Angeles, California. This is the story of how they launched a major media site in less than 1 month with Pantheon.

The Project

All we knew about the project beforehand was that it would be. The project was a ground-up build for a highly trafficked website with a launch date less than one month away. As a small team, it was crucial that we focus on development and design, not the headaches of maintaining a hosting environment capable of withstanding significant traffic spikes and potential hack attempts.

Pantheon is the reason we not only accepted the project but also hit our target launch date, building the new site start-to-finish in one month.

The Process: Old vs. New

1. Discovery & Goals

Every project starts the same way. We ask, at a base level, what’s the one thing this website needs to do? What does it need to communicate? We answer these fundamental questions first then thoroughly research the market.

2. Building the Site: Design and Development in Tandem

A flashback to the old way: Our process used to be a baton race with wireframes, design, and development as three distinct phases. The next phase began only after the previous phase was finished. It wasn’t especially collaborative.

How we did it this time: Now, site production is more like a sprint with everyone racing towards the finish line in tandem. Pantheon’s Multidev makes it easy to spin up fully functional development sites without worrying about setup. This is a tremendous time saver and allows design and development to get underway simultaneously in a collaborative environment.

3. Servers & Setup: Now 33% Faster than Before

A flashback to the old way: In the past, approximately one-third of every large-scale project was spent on sysadmin and server setup. We were using a VE server at Media Temple working exclusively with command lines. It was a mess and the end result was never all it could be. Additionally, managing the servers and updating the packages was consuming a lot of time. With all that overhead, it was becoming difficult to keep our pricing competitive.

For years we wished there was a company offering a Drupal-optimized environment and intuitive tools for easy git deployment that just worked. When we discovered Pantheon, that wish was finally granted.

How we did it this time: Pantheon made the environment set up so fast that we didn’t need a sysadmin. We were able to launch seamlessly in one month—faster than ever before. Pantheon’s dev tools are second to none and having access to their team of experts was like gaining a second staff. This project simply wouldn’t have been possible without their service and support.

4. Adding the Content: Tag-teaming Saved 2 Weeks

A flashback to the old way: Even though this would be a new publication, their staff wanted to launch with lots of content already in place. Without Pantheon, the writers wouldn’t have been able to publish articles until the site was complete. This workflow would have delayed their launch.

How we did it this time: We used Pantheon to create a Multidev environment for the staff even though the site was only half-finished. With early access, the editors could add articles and train their writers all while getting comfortable with the platform. At the same time, we were able to use a separate environment to finish our development and a third environment for Pantheon’s Launch Concierge audit and load-time analysis. Executing these phases in parallel easily saved us two weeks.

Start to finish, we built and launched the site in less than 1 month. By alleviating the overhead of systems administration, Pantheon allows us to invest more time in our core skillsets. It’s exactly what we were looking for.

5. Launch: The Website Just Works. Traffic Spikes Welcome.

A flashback to the old way: Launching large-scale news media sites can be a stressful process. Unexpected traffic spikes from referral links like Drudge Report have a reputation of bringing sites to a halt.

How we did it this time: Their staff breathed a sigh of relief when Pantheon explained they would automatically provision extra resources against unexpected traffic spikes. On launch day, the publication received an avalanche of traffic from multiple high-profile mentions and the site performed flawlessly, as expected.

6. Post-Launch: Website Generates Buzz for Our Clients, Our Business and Pantheon

A Fresh Source of Leads: Passing on this project would have been a huge mistake. The site’s success led to a considerable number of new client leads. It's looking like a project that will change our business.

Pantheon Completes Drupal: Now, we won’t even discuss a Drupal project without insisting on Pantheon. They’re inseparable. It’s like at the end of Jerry Maguire when Cruise tells Zellweger, ‘You complete me.’—that’s Drupal to Pantheon. In fact, if someone was hell-bent on building a Drupal site with us but refused to enlist Pantheon, we’d have to pass. To lose their level of service and support would be a dealbreaker.

Learn more about Delicious Simplicity.