Many of Acquia's customers have hundreds or even thousands of sites, which vary in terms of scale, functionality, longevity and complexity.
One thing that is very unique about Acquia is that we can help organizations scale from small to extremely large, one to many, and coupled to decoupled. This scalability and flexibility is quite unique, and allows organizations to standardize on a single web platform. Standardizing on a single web platform not only removes the complexity from having to manage dozens of different technology stacks and teams, but also enables organizations to innovate faster.
A great example is NBC Sports Digital. Not only does NBC Sports Digital have to manage dozens of sites across 30,000 sporting events each year, but it also has some of the most trafficked sites in the world.
In 2018, Acquia supported NBC Sports Digital as it provided fans with unparalleled coverage of Super Bowl LII, the Pyeongchang Winter Games and the 2018 World Cup. As quoted in NBC Sport's press release, NBC Sports Digital streamed more than 4.37 billion live minutes of video, served 93 million unique users, and delivered 721 million minutes of desktop video streamed. These are some of the highest trafficked events in the history of the web, and I'm very proud that they are powered by Drupal and Acquia.
To learn more about how Acquia helps NBC Sports Digital deliver more than 10,000 sporting events every year, watch my conversation with Eric Black, CTO of NBC Sports Digital, in the video below:
Not every organization gets to entertain 100 million viewers around the world, but every business has its own World Cup. Whether it's Black Friday, Mother's Day, a new product launch or breaking news, we offer our customers the tools and services necessary to optimize efficiency and provide flexibility at any scale.
Congratulations to two of my best friends, Klaas and Joke, for selling their company, Inventive Designers. The sale is a great outcome for Inventive Designer's customers, partners and employees. This sale also means I will no longer serve on Inventive Designer's Board of Directors. I'll miss our board meetings, but I'm sure Klaas, Joke and I will replace them with nights in a local bar. Congratulations, Klaas and Joke!
One trend I've noticed time and time again is that simplicity wins. Today, customers expect every technology they interact with to be both functionally powerful and easy to use.
A great example is Acquia's customer, Paychex. Paychex' digital marketing team recently replatformed Paychex.com using Drupal and Acquia. The driving factor was the need for more simplicity.
They completed the replatforming work in under four months, and beat the original launch goal by a long shot. By leveraging Drupal 8's improved content authoring capabilities, Paychex also made it a lot simpler for the marketing team to publish content, which resulted in doubled year-over-year growth in site traffic and leads.
To learn more about how Paychex accomplished its ambitious digital and marketing goals, watch my Q&A; with Erica Bizzari, digital marketing manager at Paychex.
During the Innovation Showcase at Acquia Engage, I invited Mike Mancuso, head of digital analytics at Wendy's, on stage. Wendys.com is a Drupal site running on Acquia Cloud, and welcomes 30 million unique visitors a year. Wendy's also uses Acquia Lift to deliver personalized and intelligent experiences to all 30 million visitors.
In the 8-minute video below, Mike explains how Wendy's engages with its customers online.
For the occasion, the team at Wendy's decided to target Acquia Engage attendees. If you visited Wendys.com from Acquia Engage, you got the following personalized banner. It's a nice example of what you can do with Acquia Lift.
As part of my keynote, we also demoed the next generation of Acquia Lift, which will be released in early 2019. In 2018, we decided that user experience always has to come first. We doubled our design and user experience team and changed our product development process to reflect this priority. The upcoming version of Acquia Lift is the first example of that. It offers more than just a fresh UI; it also ships with new features to simplify how marketers create campaigns. If you want a preview, have look at the 9-minute video below!
Today I turned forty. This morning, Axl and Stan surprised me with coffee in bed, served in a special birthday mug that they created.
When getting ready for a birthday party this weekend, I shaved not only my beard, but also my nose and ear hair. It sums up turning forty nicely.
Much of the things they say about turning forty are true: getting adequate sleep has become a priority, you no longer recognize celebrities in magazines, forgetfulness starts to become a bigger issue, and when you bend down to pick something up, there is no guarantee that you'll make it back up.
I can't complain though. On days like today, when looking back at the previous decade, I'm reminded how lucky and privileged I am.
Much like I hoped I would when I turned thirty, I have accomplished a lot in my thirties — both personally and professionally.
Drupal, Acquia and Open Source have been at the center of my professional career for the last decade and it has changed my life in every way. I'm lucky that my work gives me so much purpose. My desire to create, build, sustain and give back is as strong as before — there is not much more I'd want professionally.
Throughout the past ten years, I've also accomplished a lot of personal growth. I smile thinking how I have become more generous with my "I love you"s. I've gained not just weight, but also a kind of resiliency and perspective that enabled me to better deal with criticism, conflict or setbacks at work. I've learned not to sweat the small stuff and I take pride in acting with integrity on a consistent basis. From that point of view, I look forward to growing up more.
I've seen more of the world in the last ten years than in the first thirty combined. My wanderlust continues to grow and I look forward to exploring more of the world.
I've also been writing on this blog throughout the past decade. That might sound odd to call out on a day like today, but it's an accomplishment to me. My blog could have faded away like most blogs do, but it hasn't. It is one of my longest running projects and a highlight of my thirties. Blogging has made me a better communicator and a more critical thinker. It touches me that some people have been reading my blog for over a decade, and have followed me throughout my thirties. Thanks for sticking with me!
Entering my forties, part of me has zero desire to slow down, while another part of me wants to find more time to spend with Vanessa, Axl, Stan, family and friends. By the time I'll be fifty, Axl and Stan will likely be in college and might have moved out. There is nothing more satisfying than spending time with loved ones, yet it is so hard to pull off.
