The LightNest Starter Kit: Managing a Drupal Distribution for a Global Organization

After Nestlé adopted Drupal as its CMS for its 1,800+ brand websites, it became clear that an additional layer of standardization was needed to ensure reuse and help to accelerate development and cost avoidance. That’s why we created LightNest, a collection of pre-configured Drupal modules selected and created by the global WebCMS team. The LightNest distribution makes the development work easier and allows markets and brands to focus on the design, content and features that add value to their business.The starter kit includes security configurations, front-end components, integrations with third-party solutions and custom functionality relevant to all businesses.

Running a distribution adds value to the institution, but presents a lot of challenges as well. Along with the distribution, it is important to create a solid ecosystem with all stakeholders that includes constant and open communication, training and knowledge sharing.

In this session, we will present a case study on the benefits of creating a custom Drupal distribution for a large organization, how to establish ways of working across the stakeholder teams and development community to effectively maintain and evolve the product, and discuss the challenges in managing and scaling the distribution.