Umbraco-as-a-Service: changing the way we approach web solutions

At the heart (and the start) of Umbraco is “U”.

Umbraco powers over 400,000 websites in 169 countries worldwide. It records over 10,000 monthly installs and is backed by an active community following of over 180,000 craftspeople globally. It is the friendly Content Management System that will act as a vehicle for your creativity. In efforts to further free its users from the monotonous administrative tasks that come with the territory of web solutions, Umbraco has launched its biggest game changer yet, Umbraco-as-a-Service. UaaS takes the solid foundation of the Umbraco core and skyrockets it to a new level, changing the way we approach web solutions.

Founded in Denmark in 2002, Umbraco was created as a content management system that aimed to make it easier for people to build great digital experiences, only limited by their creativity and curiosity. Somewhat reflecting the culture of “simplicity in design” from its Danish roots, Umbraco was a reaction to some of the technical complexities and over-engineering that came with the boom in web-shops and CMS solutions in the early 2000s. Unlike other CMSs it hoped to return technology to its position as an “enabler” rather than a “prescriber”. With people at the centre of its inception, Umbraco began as and continues to be an open-source product – that is, free to download, accessible and editable source code and constantly improved with submissions by its users. The community forum, Our Umbraco, records [# of new posts per month] proving that users are truly invested in the success of the product.

Umbraco is not only strongly supported by this active (and hugely enthusiastic!) community, but by a rock-solid commercial organization. It provides professional support subscriptions, add-on products, video tutorial content to over 3,5000 subscribers, certification training in 8 countries worldwide, which as a result boasts over 200 certified webshop partners. The product can be used in its free, open-source format with the additional option of professional tools, support plans or the fully-managed UaaS subscription as required. If the raw Umbraco CMS is the enabler then think of UaaS as a virtual member of your team. It will change the way developers and webshops build web solutions. Two years in the making, UaaS was born from the Umbraco belief in, and commitment to, its talented craftspeople. Developers spend between 8-12% of their time on things that can be automated. That’s a lot of uninspiring, non-billable hours that UaaS picks up to free developers from the tasks of installing, upgrading and deploying. Welcome to the smarter and more productive way to build websites. It is the unique combination of UaaS’s primary features; an unshakeable, secure Azure infrastructure, automatic updates, smart deployments and efficient baselining capabilities with the existing strength and ingenuity of the Umbraco contributing community that sets it apart from other products. Running the same version of Umbraco that users download, UaaS allows the dynamite-duo of freedom from administrative tasks with freedom to create, improve and enhance. Since launching in September the rate of sign-up suggests this freedom is highly sought-after. In the first two months over 1700 UaaS users are running almost 1000 projects, including global client Carlsberg Group who are blazing the trail with a multi-site content delivery platform powered by UaaS. Also Red Bull, NFL and COOP are some of the delighted users of Umbraco.