The new Joomla! demo site was launched yesterday! The site leverages a cloud-based solution to give each user a separate installation of the Joomla! CMS for 30 days.
The new demo site allows users to maintain the integrity of their content, and continue to build and learn over an extended trial period. Each demo site user will get a free, complete, dedicated installation of the Joomla! CMS.
Users sign up, verify their email, and start building with complete customization capabilities.
Support the Joomla! project
After 30 days, a user can easily migrate the site to another host or sign up with CloudAccess.net for an ongoing account. For every account that continues after the trial period, CloudAccess.net will share back revenue with Joomla.org.
In the official statement from the Joomla! team, they state:
The previous demo site attracted 3,000 to 6,000 new visitors per day, with close to 800 per day logging in to evaluate Joomla! using a version that was modified to work in a shared environment. The new site, created in partnership with CloudAccess.net, has all the standard features of Joomla! and gives each user a completely dedicated space to experience Joomla! without having content lost or overwritten. They can install extensions, add users and experience the full power of the Joomla! CMS.
The Joomla! Demo Site uses CloudAccess.net’s custom cloud environment. Designed with the latest cloud technology, CloudAccess.net uses an object-based, distributed file system called Lustre (SAN), Nginx Load Balancers, and Apache web servers. The setup was custom built for the Joomla! CMS with a custom control panel built to measure each site's usage on the clusters. The infrastructure gives users the ability to scale a Joomla! build without touching a server. To date, CloudAccess.net has built one of the largest shared clustered environments for the Joomla! CMS. Its technology has the ability to scale to thousands of nodes with petabytes (equivalent to 1 million GB) of storage capacity without compromising speed, security, or availability.
A huge leap for Joomla!
In my opinion, this takes the demo site a huge leap forward. From something which was hardly usable (and still used by a lot of people), to something which is a really valuable tool.
The cloudaccess.net solution will make sure that you're easily updated with the latest versions of the Joomla core and extensions used.
There will also be number of templates to choose from, already embedded in the system.
The most important thing about this new demo site, though, is the fact that it lowers the bar a great deal. Now you don't need a server or any knowledge about hosting at all (not even about FTP), to start testing and using Joomla!.
Congratulations to the Joomla! project and to CloudAccess.net!