Acquia Reveals Drupal Gardens at Drupalcon Paris 2009

This past Wednesday at Drupalcon Paris 2009, Acquia, a company who provides commercial support for the Drupal content management system, revealed a sneak peak to attendees of their new project Drupal Gardens. Drupal Gardens is the company’s new “software-as-a-service” version of Drupal specifically targeting non-technical users and designed to speed up the design and deployment of Drupal social publishing sites. This new software will not only keep Drupal competitive with other hosted publishing platforms but also extend its reach to new users who might be intimidated by the technical adoption barriers that any CMS present.

Drupal Gardens was built on Drupal 7 and is a hosted webs service that includes design tools similar to blog publishing platforms. There are no skill set prerequisites or ownership of hosting environments required. According to the announcement, Drupal Gardens will include:

1. Flexible Configuration for custom designs

Tools that help site owners build custom sites and designs without advanced technical skills.

2. The Simplicity of Point-and-Click

The ability to launch the site with just a few clicks, without programming skills.

3. Streamlined Content Contribution

All online content produced and distributed through a Drupal Gardens-hosted site will be easily accessible to its users, no matter the level of technical ability.

4. Room To Grow

The functionality to expand your site at any time with complete site portability. Great for growing businesses.

The Drupal Gardens project is still in alpha but you can keep informed and sign up for updates on beta availability and registration at Drupalgardens.com.