Hi Junior,

We have been hosting library sites for 14 years and Drupal sites for over 7 years. Two years ago we shuttered our data center that was located three stories underground in an LA bank vault (really) and executed a plan that was four years in the making and moved everything to AWS. We leverage CI and other automation to reduce the boring parts of our job, and AWS's reliability reduces the exciting parts. We are AWS consulting partners and have been initiated into the AWS black arts and crafts.

While we would love to have more clients, this is not an ad for us. We have a long standing policy of answering any question regarding Drupal and Drupal hosting that is asked on the Drupal4Lib list for the low price of absolutely nothing. We might not have every answer, but if we don't, odds are that someone else on the list will. This is the good stuff. We don't hold back.

Drop in and fire away.

Thanks,

Cary

On Sep 2, 2014, at 12:17 PM, Junior Tidal <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hi Brad,
> 
> When first starting working, our library web server was on a shared Windows IIS server with several other departments, which prevented us from using a CMS due to security concerns. The initial site was a static set of pages, so we couldn't install PHP, MySQL, etc.
> 
> Through the encouragement of our then Chief Librarian, I wrote a proposal to our provost so the library could have our own LAMP server so we could install Drupal. The proposal was approved, but the tradeoff was that it was the library's responsibility (me) to administer the web server. IT hosted the server in their server room, but we had to maintain security, OS/site upgrades, and backups. That's not to say that our IT department wasn't helpful, they were more hands off. 
> 
> We've had our own server for the last 5-6 years, but it's now on its last legs. We've installed open-source CMSs such as Drupal, WordPress, and MediaWiki so we've certainly outgrown our current server. We also need to desperately upgrade our Drupal install, so we can rollout our responsive redesign.
> 
> We're migrating (hopefully this week) to the cloud to an Amazon instance with a LAMP setup. IT was consulted to approve the purchase for the cloud instance. I think this is a wise move, since there will be less worry for everyone about hardware upgrades and systems maintenance. 
> 
> I personally think that if your library can system administrate your own server it not only makes you less dependent on your institution's IT, but it allows for the site to grow and evolve for newer web technologies. 
> 
> Best,
> Junior
> 
> Junior Tidal
> Assistant Professor
> Web Services and Multimedia Librarian
> New York City College of Technology, CUNY 
> 300 Jay Street, Rm A434
> Brooklyn, NY 11201
> 718.260.5481
> 
> http://library.citytech.cuny.edu
> 
> 
>>>> Brad Coffield <[log in to unmask]> 9/2/2014 11:39 AM >>>
> THE QUESTION:
> 
> What kind of setup does your library have regarding servers, IT dept
> collaboration, CMS restrictions, anything else? I imagine that there are
> many unique situations. Any input you're willing to provide will be very
> welcome and useful.