Who We Are
Consensus Enterprises is not your average technology company. We are a collective of workers who are driven by optimism, equity, and a shared passion for open-source technologies. Our mission is to build a company that doesn’t just benefit a select few, but instead shares the rewards of our collective hard work.
Having contributed to the Drupal community and others for over 20 years, open-source technology is deeply ingrained in our DNA. We maintain the widely-used Aegir hosting system, a trusted application manager for countless Drupal sites. Through our efforts, we’ve delivered numerous modules, patches, bugfixes, updates, and talks to the community.
The Challenge at Hand
The Drupal community has long enjoyed the benefits of a robust, open-source tool in the form of Aegir for the secure and efficient management of their web applications. However, the impending End-Of-Life (EOL) for Drupal 7, which underpins the current version of Aegir, is casting a shadow on this reliable tool. With the EOL, Aegir3 will also sunset, leaving a gap in the market for a community-owned, open-source hosting solution.
This situation presents us with an urgent need to create a modern alternative that is not only reliable but also doesn’t require one to be a DevOps expert to operate. The community needs a tool that can support the transition to Drupal 10 sites, while also accommodating non-Drupal sites.
The Solution: Aegir5
Meet Aegir5, our proposed solution to this pressing issue. Envisioned as an advanced hosting solution, Aegir5 is more than just a replacement for its predecessor. It is a tool designed for the future, levering modern components and offering flexibility for a variety of use-cases.
Being application-agnostic, Aegir5 will not only offer a smooth migration path for Aegir3 users but will also extend its benefits to Drupal developers, development shops, small non-profits, large institutions, Software-as-a-Service developers, and Platform-as-a-Service providers. Aegir5 will be poised to manage entire software stacks, including infrastructure, marking a significant evolution in the Aegir hosting platform.
Making Aegir5 a Reality
Achieving this vision for Aegir5 requires both time and resources. We already have a solid proof-of-concept, but we need to solidify and stabilize it. We estimate around 400 hours of effort to reach the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) stage for Aegir5. That work will include the creation of a functional Drupal application hosting platform and a stable developer-ready toolkit, comprehensive documentation and a test suite. And it will allow for contributions from the wider community.
We recently shot a short video pitch that was included in the DrupalCon Pitch-Burg pitch competition.
Bridging to the Future: A plan to bring Aegir5 to the Drupal community from Consensus Enterprise s on Vimeo.
Description: Consensus Enterprises is seeking funds to match its own investment in building Aegir5: an application-agnostic, modern, and open-source community-owned hosting tool that works with Drupal 10. This will offer a migration path for Aegir3 users, and will also enable management of non-Drupal sites and applications with entire software stacks. This funding will help us reach an alpha MVP more quickly, opening the door for other contributors in the community to also start developing the application.
Impact and Outcomes
The successful development and launch of Aegir5 will mark a major milestone for Consensus and the Drupal community at large. Not only will it solve the imminent hosting problem, but it will also pave the way for future development and innovation within the Drupal environment.
Moreover, it will continue our tradition of offering a robust, community-owned, open-source alternative to commercial hosting products and services. Aegir5 is more than just a product; it’s a testament to the power of collective hard work, embodying our commitment to sharing the rewards of such work with the community.
Join the Journey
We invite you to be part of this exciting journey. Once we release the Alpha, we will be able to open up development and contributions to the bigger Drupal community.
If you are an open-source enthusiast, a small business, a non-profit organization, a university or government agency or an organization simply looking to receive support from a collective of highly-experienced, strategic and kind technologists, then let’s explore how we can help you solve your technical problems.
Get in touch today and learn how you can support or benefit from the expertise of some of Aegir5’s architects. Stay tuned for more as we continue to share updates on the development of Aegir5.
The article Building the Future of Drupal Hosting with Aegir5 first appeared on the Consensus Enterprises blog.
We've disabled blog comments to prevent spam, but if you have questions or comments about this post, get in touch!