Why You Should Deploy Umbraco to Azure Gov Cloud

A content management system is crucial to any website or web application. But it’s even more critical for government agencies. Government agencies often have strict content management requirements. These dictate how information can be created and updated.

For example, every piece of content on your site must pass through a legal review. Most government websites rely on WordPress for content management, which can create problems.

WordPress is an excellent tool for managing your website’s content. But it’s not always the best choice for public sector agencies. It doesn’t offer the flexibility and customization options that cater to your security requirements.

This is where Umbraco comes in. Umbraco is the best CMS for government agencies. This is because it offers all the features necessary to create a secure website. Let’s explore why Umbraco is the best CMS for deployment to the Azure government cloud.

What is the Azure Gov Cloud?

The Azure Government Cloud is a new public cloud offering from Microsoft. It lets government agencies access the same technology used by the world’s largest businesses.

• The Azure Government Cloud supports all the specialized compliance needs of government agencies. This includes the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and the National Security Agency (NSA). The cloud offers a wide range of services and capabilities, including:
• High-performance storage
• Secure networking capabilities
• Customized security controls

What Content Management System Challenges Can Umbraco Help You Tackle?

Let’s take WordPress as an example. It is the most popular CMS in the world. You can use WordPress to develop small-scale blogs and large-scale e-commerce sites. It can power almost any type of website or application imaginable.

However, as a content management system, WordPress has some significant limitations. This appears when creating complex applications with high customizability.

For government agencies with compliance requirements, security concerns are essential.

Some challenges with most CMS include:

Security Vulnerabilities

A government agency’s website is a high-profile target for hackers. And WordPress has its share of security vulnerabilities. For example, WordPress was the most-attacked CMS in 2021, with 95.6% of all attacks targeting it.

WordPress accounts for over 30% of all websites on the internet. So, suppose you’re running a government site built on WordPress (as many agencies do). Then you’re much more likely to be a target for hackers than other CMSs.

As a result, you’ll need to invest more time and effort into securing your site.

But with Umbraco, this is a lot less of a problem. Umbraco is built on the ASP.NET framework, which means it’s more secure than WordPress (which runs on PHP). Also, Umbraco is more prevalent among enterprise clients. This means there are fewer vulnerabilities in its codebase. There are also fewer hackers who know how to exploit them. To date, there have been very few security issues that have been identified by Umbraco. In response, Umbraco has released patches ASAP and communicated them carefully to all customers, partners, and users.

Slow Performance

One hallmark of a government web application is that it needs to be fast. The government can’t afford to make citizens wait while they fill out forms or submit information. They need everything to run smoothly without lag time.

But with WordPress and other CMSs, there’s no guarantee that your site will be fast. It all depends on how well your host has optimized their servers. It also depends on how you use your site (i.e., if you have too many plugins running simultaneously).

Umbraco considers speed from the get-go, and it was built to be fast. It’s also easier to optimize your Umbraco site than a WordPress one. If your website is slow, you can adjust it immediately instead of it taking hours or days.

Over-reliance on Plugins of Other CMSs

Source: WordFence

Confusing WordPress Errors

If you’ve ever used WordPress, you’re probably familiar with the many error messages on your screen. Yes, these are usually easy to fix. But they can still be frustrating when they happen at the wrong time or in the middle of a critical project.

For example, suppose a plugin doesn’t work correctly and causes an error message on your website. You might have to spend hours figuring out what went wrong and how to fix it.

But Umbraco has no such difficulties because it’s built from the ground up to be reliable and secure. This means your website won’t crash. It won't cause major errors when you least expect them.

User Permissions

Government websites must often be cautious about who can access their content. This is because they have lots of sensitive information that needs to stay secure. For example, suppose you work on a government website. And suppose you accidentally publish confidential information about your organization’s plans. This could cause significant problems for everyone involved.

With Umbraco, this becomes easier. It makes it easy to control which users can view specific pages or sections of your site. The platform offers several built-in user permission options, such as Members. These allow you to control what each user can see and do on your site.

This lets you grant access to only the information necessary for each user to do their job. It lets you keep other sensitive data away from prying eyes.

Editing Experience

WordPress's editing experience is notorious for being frustrating, clunky, and downright confusing. The platform was initially designed as a blogging tool, not as a CMS.

So, it’s no surprise that its editing interface has always been less than ideal. This is especially true when you need to manage large amounts of content on your site.

Umbraco handles this problem in a much different way. Umbraco displays your content in an intuitive visual interface. This allows you to find what you’re looking for quickly. You can then adjust it on-the-fly without having to go into a separate editor screen.

How Can You Integrate Umbraco With Azure Gov?

Umbraco is the perfect CMS for Azure and can easily be extended to run on Azure’s public sector offering with the appropriate CI/CD process. It’s easy to use, powerful, and flexible.

Integrate Umbraco With Your Existing Azure Gov Site

You can use Umbraco to manage your content if you already have an Azure Gov tenant. This is useful if you want to use the Azure Gov CMS as a back-end service for another application. You can also use Umbraco to create custom applications that integrate with Azure Government.

Conclusion

Umbraco is a powerful CMS for Azure government cloud deployment. It’s ideal for any organization that must rapidly create content-rich websites. Umbraco can be configured to leverage the power of Azure Government Cloud. So, it can provide a secure front end for your site hosted on Microsoft infrastructure.

At A Cultivated Mindset, as an Umbraco Gold Partner and patriotic citizens, we are interested in helping government agencies and businesses deploy the best tools the technology market has on offer. This is why one of our focuses now and in the future is on how we can help as many government agencies as possible leverage the air-tight security features of Umbraco.

Please reach out to us at A Cultivated Mindset, we’ll walk you through the Umbraco side of things and help you get started. Click here to schedule a consultation with our team.