WordPress in AWS

The WordPress in Amazon Web Services (AWS) product allows agencies to partner with DTS to build, migrate, deploy, and monitor  WordPress environments in the cloud in an efficient, cost effective, and architecturally sound way.  

Hours of Support
Application	Type of Support	Support Hours	Days of Week
WordPress in AWS	Standard support	8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.	Monday through Friday
	Emergency support*	5:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m.	Monday through Friday
*Table Note: Problems can be reported by contacting the DTS Help Desk. Issues will then be routed to the cloud hosting on-call team.

Key Features of DTS WordPress in AWS

• WordPress in AWS reduces time-to-market for both new and existing websites.
• As agencies’ WordPress cloud partner, DTS is invested in agencies’ success.
• DTS will work with agencies to ensure that agency websites are active and backed up.

Product Features

Resources

DTS employs cloud architects and engineers with cloud solutions experience.

24/7 Environment Support

Cloud solutions are monitored and supported by DTS personnel 24/7. Problems can be reported by contacting the DTS Help Desk.

Deployment Support

The cloud platform team will coordinate with DTS experts to engineer new WordPress sites and migrate existing WordPress sites to the cloud. WordPress sites may be requested through ServiceNow.

Configuration

DTS will configure and maintain agency AWS instances using secure best practices.

Cloud Updates

All AWS environments are monitored, patched, and updated through a coordinated effort between the agency and DTS.

Note on Current Limitations: Agencies should contact their IT director about any questions regarding using cloud services.

Features Not Included

WordPress Design and Development

WordPress design and development is available at the current rate for Application Services.

WordPress Assistance and Troubleshooting (outside the AWS environment)

WordPress assistance and troubleshooting outside the AWS environment is available at the current rate for Application Services.

WordPress Maintenance

WordPress website maintenance is available via a maintenance agreement with the DTS WordPress Team.

Quality Assurance (QA)

QA is available at the current rate for Application Services.

Rates and Billing
Feature	Description	Rate
Cloud Service AWS Tiered	Tiers are based on required memory, processors, disk space, and bandwidth needs.	See current rate sheet
Shared App Hosting Cloud SysAdmin	This price is only for Lightsail products. For EC2 or other infrastructure, see the Tiered rate.	See current rate sheet

Ordering and Provisioning

• Agencies can request WordPress websites by selecting the WordPress in AWS button under Order Product/Service at the top-right of this page or directly through the ServiceNow Service Catalog by selecting Hosting Services, Cloud Services, and then WordPress(Lightsail). 

• All WordPress sites are required to be deployed in a test environment prior to deployment in the production environment. Development sites can be provided as well. A separate request (i.e., a separate WordPress (Lightsail) form in ServiceNow) should be submitted for each environment.

• An ELCID and technical contact must be provided on all requests.

• For each requested environment, an environment size (i.e., small, medium, or large) must be selected. DTS recommends ordering a small instance for development and test environments. Environment size details are as follows:

  • EC2 Small: 2 cpu, 2 GB RAM, 60 GB disk
  • EC2 Medium: 2 cpu, 4 GB RAM, 80 GB disk
  • EC2 Large: 2 cpu, 8 GB RAM, 160 GB disk
  • Lightsail Small: 1 cpu, 2 GB RAM, 60 GB disk
  • Lightsail Medium: 2 cpu, 4 GB RAM, 80 GB disk
  • Lightsail Large: 2 cpu, 8 GB RAM, 160 GB disk

Implementation

• Implementations of WordPress in AWS are supported by DTS.
• Agencies must request all implementations  by submitting a WordPress (Lightsail) form through ServiceNow.
• All websites must meet the requirements and baselines as outlined herein, including the approved themes listed in the subsequent Approved Optional Themes and Plugins section of this document and the web design standards listed on the Accessibility page of the Utah.gov website.
  • If an agency’s website does not meet baseline requirements, the agency should contact their IT director to discuss whether the baseline needs to be reevaluated.

DTS Responsibilities

DTS has the following responsibilities: 

• Provision new WordPress websites and migrate existing WordPress websites from on premises to the cloud
• Provision the appropriate cloud resources to run WordPress environments
• Monitor, patch, and update AWS environments as needed
• Install additional plugins after security review (unless a maintenance provider is completing this task)

Agency Responsibilities

The agency has the following responsibilities: 

• Submit WordPress requests through the DTS website or the ServiceNow Service Catalog
• Provide validation that QA has been performed (either by the agency or by the DTS QA group at the hourly rate) and that the QA Checklist for Test Environment prior to Go Live  (included in a later section of this document) has been completed
• Comply with security standards that have been outlined for accessing state resources
• Keep administrative accounts secure and utilize UtahID login
• Be responsible for their own content
• Agree to only put public data on websites and collect public data through forms unless a special business case is submitted
• Have a maintenance agreement with DTS or an approved contractor who will maintain the website’s WordPress core, plugins, and themes
• Ensure that all agency WordPress sites have all required plugins active and meet the minimum published baselines for configuration, including plugins and themes
• Ensure that there is no direct connection from the agency websites to external databases
• Use the Content Admin role in the production environment, as Admin roles will be reserved for DTS and maintenance providers
• Submit their website for a security review prior to QA testing (See instructions here.)
• Ensure their website adheres to the State’s web design standards

Required Plugins

• UpdraftPlus
• UtahID Login
• DTS Functions Plugin
• Wordfence, for sites not utilizing utah.gov domains

Approved Optional Themes and Plugins

List of approved themes and plugins

QA Checklist for Test Environment prior to Go Live
Feature Validation	Confirmation
Required plugins are installed and active.	Pass 𝥁  Fail 𝥁
Only approved optional themes and plugins are installed. List them below:	Pass 𝥁  Fail 𝥁
Custom plugins and/or child themes have been reviewed (e.g., peer, code checkers). List them below:	Pass 𝥁  Fail 𝥁 NA 𝥁
Only public data is displayed.	Pass 𝥁  Fail 𝥁
Only public data is requested through forms.	Pass 𝥁  Fail 𝥁  NA 𝥁
Maintenance agreement has been entered into.	Pass 𝥁  Fail 𝥁
There are no direct connections to other databases.	Pass 𝥁  Fail 𝥁
Only the DTS WordPress Team and the maintenance provider have the admin role in the production environment.	Pass 𝥁  Fail 𝥁
Website information has been submitted to DTS security for review.	Pass 𝥁  Fail 𝥁
Change request has been submitted and approved in ServiceNow.	Pass 𝥁  Fail 𝥁
WordPress core, themes, and plugins are up to date.	Pass 𝥁  Fail 𝥁
Website is browser compatible with major supported versions.	Pass 𝥁  Fail 𝥁
Website is mobile compatible.	Pass 𝥁  Fail 𝥁
Website adheres to the state’s web design standards.	Pass 𝥁  Fail 𝥁

 

QA Notes
QA Validation
Name	Contact Information

 

Development Pipeline
Stage	Team	Infrastructure Support Team	Tools/Process/Outcome
Development	Software development		Local instance of XAMPP Webpack to generate CSS Themes
Repository	Software development	Capitol Hosting	GitLab, S3
Build	Software development		Generated CSS Package theme files Manual files copied to server UpdraftPlus to backup Databases Themes Uploads Plugins WP core
Artifact	Software development		Set of .zip files that contains: Database Themes Uploads Plugins WP core
Artifact repository	Software development	DevOps	S3
Deploy	DevOps cloud architects	DevOps	Run scripts to build Lightsail or EC2 instance Restore from UpdraftPlus DB find/replace
Environment	DevOps cloud architects	EHSS	AWS Lightsail or EC2 instance containing: Full set of files Content from client (if prod)
Monitor	EHSS	EHSS	Zabbix
Support/ maintenance	WordPress SRE Team	WordPress SRE Team	Tier I: SRE Team Tier 2: EHSS Tier 3: Dev/Eng
Pipeline maintenance	DevOps		Regular evaluation of the whole development pipeline

DTS Service Levels and Metrics

In an effort to improve service to our customer agencies, DTS will measure and report on the following enterprise metric goals:

• Application Availability
• Resolution Time
• Initial Response
• First Contact Resolution 
• Customer Satisfaction Surveys and Reporting

Application Availability

Application availability measures DTS’s efforts to ensure that agency key business applications meet the percentage of availability goals identified in each agency’s service level agreement. DTS will determine application availability based upon the collective measurement of the configuration items (both hardware and software) that are required in order to support the agency business services applications. These metrics will be reported each month, by agency, and will be presented in a cumulative report showing DTS’s efforts over several months. These reports will then be posted on the DTS Metrics Web page at https://dts.utah.gov/metrics/index.php. 

Metric Description	Target Percentage of Application Availability*
WordPress in AWS	99%

Table Note: *Times exclude those tickets in a “Pending” status waiting for a known bug fix.

Resolution Time

Resolution time measures DTS’s efforts to resolve customer incidents within the timelines set below based on urgent, high, medium, and low priorities. These metrics will be reported each month, by agency, and will be presented in a cumulative report showing DTS’s efforts over several months. These reports will then be posted on the DTS Metrics Web page at https://dts.utah.gov/metrics/index.php. 

Total Time to Resolution	Target Percentage of Tickets Meeting Priority Timelines
Low priority: 6 business hours	90%
Medium priority: 4 business hours	90%
High priority: 3 clock hours	90%
Critical priority: 3 clock hours	90%

Initial Response

Initial response measures DTS’s efforts to respond to customer incidents within the timelines set below based on urgent, high, medium, and low priorities. These metrics will be reported each month, by agency, and will be presented in a cumulative report showing DTS’s efforts over several months. These reports will then be posted on the DTS Metrics Web page at https://dts.utah.gov/metrics/index.php.  

Time to Initial Response	Target Percentage of Tickets Meeting Priority Timelines
Low priority: 1 business hour	85%
Medium priority: 1 business hour	85%
High priority: 1 clock hour	90%
Critical priority: 30 clock minutes	95%

First Contact Resolution

First contact resolution measures DTS’s efforts to resolve customer incidents on a customer’s initial contact with either our help desk or a technical specialist. These metrics will be reported each month, by agency, and will be presented in a cumulative report showing DTS’s efforts over several months. These reports will then be posted on the DTS Metrics Web page at https://dts.utah.gov/metrics/index.php. 

Metric Description	Target Percentage of Reported Incidents Resolved on Initial Contact
First Contact Resolution	65%

Customer Satisfaction Surveys and Reporting 

All users/customers whose technical incidents are resolved by DTS staff will be given the opportunity to respond to an online survey regarding their level of satisfaction with the support received from DTS. Responding to the survey is voluntary. 

The chart below identifies DTS enterprise goals for customer satisfaction. Cumulative monthly reports will be created displaying the level of customer satisfaction with DTS support. These reports will then be posted on the DTS Metrics Web page at https://dts.utah.gov/metrics/index.php. 

Metric Description	Target Levels of Customer Satisfaction
Average level of satisfaction with resolution efforts	≥ 4.5 on a scale of 0–5
Percentage of respondents expressing satisfaction (vs. dissatisfaction)	93% of respondents satisfied