Overview
POWDR operates 15+ high-traffic marketing websites for their outdoor recreation portfolio, serving millions of visitors annually with massive seasonal traffic spikes. Guests purchase lift tickets, book lodging, and buy season passes, making website performance directly tied to revenue.
They were facing escalating hosting costs, and despite the "enterprise" price tag, they experienced frequent timeout issues during traffic spikes, slow support through bureaucratic ticket systems, and technical problems that directly impacted revenue. The platform was expensive, unreliable, and unable to handle their actual needs.
Blue Drop Labs provided managed Drupal hosting with flat-rate pricing, unlimited bandwidth, and direct access to senior engineers for premium support. We became an extension of POWDR's team rather than just another vendor, resulting in lower costs and increased stability.
Revenue protection
When POWDR's sites experience timeouts or slow loading during peak booking periods, they lose sales. The new hosting infrastructure ensures that high-traffic moments translate to revenue rather than frustrated customers and abandoned carts. Annual Drupal version upgrades happen strategically during the summer months to reduce risk during the peak season.
Faster response to business needs
Development teams no longer dread deployments. With build times reduced from 5 minutes to 40 seconds and zero timeout failures, they can push updates, fixes, and new features confidently. This means faster response to business needs and reduced developer stress during critical launch windows.
Leaving Acquia, and building Blue Drop Cloud
In 2023, Acquia proposed roughly doubling POWDR's hosting costs for the same level of service. For a portfolio of 15+ resort sites that had already lived with timeouts and slow support on an enterprise plan, that was the moment to leave. Blue Drop migrated POWDR onto managed hosting built on DigitalOcean and Cloudflare, with flat-rate pricing, no overage penalties, and direct access to the engineers who run it.
That migration is the origin of Blue Drop Cloud, our platform for liberating Drupal sites from Acquia and Pantheon. It gives teams the development, staging, and production workflow they expect from an enterprise host, without enterprise pricing or a roadmap set by someone else's exit strategy. POWDR's platform is the proof it was built on, and Blue Drop Cloud is now in closed beta for other Drupal teams ready to make the same move.
A true, proactive partnership
Blue Drop doesn't wait for requests. Regular platform improvements include Drupal admin UI updates, security patches, and infrastructure optimizations. We also proactively identified several platform health and maintenance projects that will help ensure POWDR's long-term sustainability.
We also aim to pass on technical knowledge, giving POWDR and its development teams more agency. Our educational approach ensures non-technical stakeholders can make informed decisions without feeling intimidated by technical complexity.
Tired of enterprise pricing without enterprise service?
Blue Drop Labs delivers high-performance Drupal hosting with the responsiveness and customization you won't get from large providers. Learn how we can reduce your hosting costs while improving reliability, performance, and support.
Ready to turn traffic spikes into revenue? Contact us to discuss how we can transform your hosting challenges into competitive advantages.
Paying enterprise prices for hosting that still times out on your busiest days?
Talk about moving your Drupal sites