Getting Started with Pantheon at U-M

To get started with Pantheon requires four steps:

  1. Ensure your website is behind U-M Cloudflare (strongly recommended in order to reduce Pantheon rate plan costs).
  2. Request an empty U-M Pantheon website.
  3. Build your website in the empty U-M Pantheon website or migrate your existing website into it.
  4. Publish the completed U-M Pantheon website.

For details, refer to Getting Started with Pantheon at U-M.

What to expect

All websites start on the Sandbox plan, which is free. When you are ready to publish the website (that is, make it accessible through a non-Pantheon domain name), you will choose the paid plan you want for the website based on your anticipated traffic levels and, if your traffic is low enough, whether you want Basic or Performance Small.  If in doubt, choose the cheaper plan and upgrade only if traffic levels indicate a need.

If a website exceeds its plan’s traffic limit for any month, Pantheon will charge an overage fee for the number of visitors above the site’s limit that month.  All Performance plans include Overage Protection, which waives up to four months of overage charges each calendar year.

Websites on the Basic plan do not receive any Overage Protection; they are charged for all overages.

You can change the plan for a website at any time.  If you move to a higher plan, you will be charged the prorated cost difference between your old and new plans.  If you move to a lower plan, you will not receive any refund or credit.

You can minimize your site’s Pantheon Plan costs and any overage charges by putting your website behind U-M Cloudflare and ensuring that all public content is cached for a year.  You will need to configure your website software to integrate with Cloudflare and purge old versions of content from Cloudflare’s cache whenever website updates are made.

Responsibilities

ITS

  • Support website owners for U-M integrations, service plans, and billing.
  • Manage vendor relationship with Pantheon.
  • Provide a self-service portal for automatic provisioning of websites.
  • Integrate with U-M IT environment.
  • Provide security and accessibility scanning.
  • Maintain the Secure Tunnel between U-M and Pantheon.

Pantheon

  • Website hosting for WordPress and Drupal websites.
  • Provide website owners with 24x7 enterprise support (Pantheon Diamond support plan) for WordPress, Drupal, and all Pantheon-related features except service plans and billing.
  • Maintain the Secure Tunnel between Pantheon websites and U-M.

Unit

  • Provide a valid Shortcode to rebill Pantheon website costs.
  • Unit-provided Themes/Templates or Designs.
  • Develop, test, and maintain web content.
  • Ensure websites are secure and Accessibility compliant.
  • Adherence to university data management and security policies, particularly with sensitive data.
  • Maintain the MCommunity Group that will be used to control who can manage the website hosting.