Case Study: University of Missouri achieves 300% more site capacity and 30% lower hosting costs with Platform.sh

Groundbreaking research university embraces PaaS to manage security and compliance, maximize efficiencies across its website fleet

The University of Missouri faced a large-scale web modernization challenge: migrate, standardize, and manage roughly 25% (400–500) of its 1,600 unmanaged on‑premises WordPress, Drupal, and static HTML sites while meeting strict security and compliance requirements and reducing technical debt. After an RFP process the university selected Platform.sh as its cloud PaaS to centralize hosting, enforce standards, and protect student and institutional data.

Platform.sh implemented a Git-integrated, standardized hosting platform for Drupal and WordPress (with upstreams, built-in build processes, and support for SimpleSAMLphp/Shibboleth and local dev tooling), enabling rapid provisioning and consistent updates. The Platform.sh rollout delivered measurable impact: a 300% increase in requests handled by sites, a 30% reduction in annual hosting costs, the ability to manage many more sites with fewer developers, much faster provisioning (new sites in minutes) and rapid security patching (e.g., 70 sites updated in a day).

University of Missouri

Paul Gilzow

Programmer Analyst Principal (WordPress), Marketing