Rackspace->Amazon migration status

Hi all,

Just wanted to keep everyone abreast of the latest developments.

As of last week:

I've completed the process of porting rhizome.org to Ubuntu 12.04. While doing so I dramatically simplified the underlying architecture of the site and cut down the number of files and software dependencies. I moved all site-related config files (previously scattered willy-nilly on the server's file system) into the code repository.

I've automated the processes of making changes live, as well as installing rhizome.org and its dependencies from scratch on any recent Ubuntu. (In other words, what I spent the last 4 months working on can now be accomplished in mere minutes–for the those curious I'm using the Fabric Python library)

We're now adhering to modern best practices! This will translate to greater speed and agility in all future site dev projects.

Next steps:

Before flipping the switch and canceling our Rackspace services, I've got to migrate archive.rhizome.org, 50k.rhizome.org and nymediaartsmap.org. 50k and the Media Arts Map will be challenging as they have databases and custom LAMP environments.

The migration must be completed before the site sprint, the productivity of that event depends on it. So the migration remains my top priority.

Thanks for putting up with my deferring of other requests during this process. Beginning in late June, a whirlwind of changes will be made to the user-facing website.