Drupal’s Installation Profiles are a great way to speed up the initial development when starting a new project. Taking them a step further and releasing profiles as distributions can speed up the creation of entire new websites for both developers and non-technical users alike. Many large organizations have dozens of separate websites, spanning multiple technologies like Drupal or Wordpress or static pages, and need a quick and affordable way to create new websites for franchises or departments that share common pieces of custom functionality.

By using a distribution tailored for their specific needs, organizations see several benefits. Reduced code sprawl and vendor costs through fewer technologies and technology experts. Reduced scaling costs as a new website can be built in minutes rather than weeks or months and often without the help from a development team. Reduced maintenance costs as updates or new features can be rolled out in bulk and then configured per website. Lastly, development budgets are better utilized since time (and money) gets invested in improving the platform as a whole rather than performing the same tasks on several websites individually.

In this presentation we’ll go over:

• What is a Drupal Installation Profile and Distribution.
• What to keep in mind when planning your own distribution.
• Flexible and unassuming content using the Paragraphs module.
• Establishing a solid starting point with the Default Content module.
• Configurable branding with the Color and @FontYourFace modules.
• Single click installs and bulk maintenance using Pantheon’s Upstreams and Terminus CLI.
• Composer based installation and maintenance.