Building software to be proud of
I'm on vacation this week, and was catching up on my RSS feed. I read that the Australian government content management system GovCMS has reported record traffic spikes this year due to COVID-19.
This caught my attention because GovCMS is a Drupal distribution — a version of Drupal developed as a cost-effective option for building government websites.
Today, 91 Australian government agencies use GovCMS. At the peak of the pandemic, the platform saw 2 billion hits per month, 100,000 page views per minute, and 187,000 concurrent users.
When I read that, I felt proud that Drupal is scalable, secure and accessible. I hope other Drupalists feel that way as well. One of the best ways to get more people to contribute to Drupal is by building software that people can be proud of.
The GovCMS numbers are just the tip of the iceberg. Drupal is not just being used by the Australian government – it's being used by thousands of federal, state and local governments around the world. Many of these government agencies are providing essential health information and other digital services during these trying times.
It's a powerful reminder of Drupal's impact, and why it's non-negotiable that we build Drupal so everyone can use it, and use it reliably.
— Dries Buytaert
Dries Buytaert is an Open Source advocate and technology executive. More than 10,000 people are subscribed to his blog. Sign up to have new posts emailed to you or subscribe using RSS. Write to Dries Buytaert at dries@buytaert.net.