Building Secure and Scalable Enterprise WordPress Sites: Lessons for Digital Agencies

In recent years, there has been increasing demand for WordPress solutions of considerable sophistication. Although WordPress used to mostly be considered a tool that is used by bloggers, enterprises are now using it to build robust content management systems.

There are several major challenges that digital agencies are currently facing, including the need for increased security, scalability for growing services, and integration between programs. If you familiarize yourself with real-world enterprise WordPress builds, it could be very useful for your company. If you need assistance, you should look into getting SAP commerce services.

Why WordPress for Enterprise?

A lot of people aren’t aware of how powerful WordPress for enterprise sites can be at the enterprise level. It has a lot of advantages that can be useful to large companies:

• It is flexible, so it can be used in different ways
• It has a large plugin ecosystem, which can provide diverse functionality
• It provides editorial freedom to construct files in customized ways that suit your business
• It provides developer support to assist with complex tasks
• The total cost of ownership with WordPress is considerably lower than with other programs

Testament to WordPress’ strength is the fact that it is used by quite a few major companies, including TechCrunch, Facebook Newsroom, Sony Music, and more.

Plan for Scale from Day One

If you are building infrastructure from scratch, it is important to plan for scalability from the beginning. You don’t want to have to replace your system parts as your company grows as it will both cause you to do an unnecessary amount of work, and it could cause problems with one or more of your software programs later on.

When using WordPress for enterprise, it is important to distinguish between managed hosting options such as WordPress VIP, WP Engine, and Kinsta versus self-managed setups. With managed options, you will have several benefits, including automatic updates and backups. Self-managed hosting, on the other hand, will give you greater flexibility but requires a higher level of technical expertise.

There are also other things to take into consideration:

1. Horizontal scalability. It is important that workload applications be scalable across multiple server instances.
2. Content catching. This refers to the ability to use caching in different ways. Varnish is a program that provides caching reverse proxy, and Redis is capable of caching a range of dynamic information.
3. CDN integration. Content Delivery Networks are capable of stretching content across different servers.
4. Autoscaling allows you to define the metrics that govern the number and distribution of running servers you use.

Prioritize Enterprise-Grade Security

When working with high-traffic or mission-critical enterprise WordPress installs, it is essential that you have enterprise-grade security to prevent potential hacking. The following security measures are recommended:

• Role-based access controls (RBAC). This allows specific users to control a system based upon their roles in the company.
• Firewalls & WAF. Firewalls and Web Application Firewalls. Firewalls are able to protect systems as a whole, and Web Application Firewalls are able to protect specific applications from outside interference.
• Two-factor authentication. Requiring two-factor authentication from users provides an extra layer of protection, particularly if one form of authentication is biometric.
• Secure deployment pipelines. Secure deployment pipelines are a series of steps that help make sure changes to software are concluded safely and without damage to the software.

It is also important to stay in compliance. Frameworks such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and SOC 2 (System and Organization Controls 2) correspond to the European Union and the AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants), respectively. You should be sure to be in compliance with whatever your governing framework is.

Integrate with Enterprise Systems

To ensure that all the components of your enterprise system work correctly, they must be fully integrated with WordPress for enterprise. This includes your CRM, ERP, PIM, and eCommerce platforms. Examples of integrations that you can complete include:

• Salesforce for lead capture. This allows businesses to collect information from different sources and channel it towards potential leads that can be used in sales plans.
• HubSpot and Marketo. These marketing automation platforms provide automation for small/medium-sized companies and large companies, respectively.
• SAP Commerce. This digital commerce platform provides backend features for managing ecommerce functions, including providing product information, managing catalogs, and managing customer relations.

Optimize for Multi-Stakeholder Workflows

If you have a large content team, you will need custom editorial workflows. Plugins can assist with translation workflows, including:

• Edit Flow. Edit Flow provides custom statuses, calendars, and editorial comments to facilitate collaboration with WordPress for enterprise.
• Advanced Custom Fields. These plugins can take control of WordPress edit screens and custom field data. This helps to provide enhanced content management, enable more flexible design options, and make content management easier for clients.
• Multilingual Press creates AI-driven automated translations.

Future-Proof with Headless WordPress (Optional/Advanced)

Using a Content Management System (CMS) approach to creating and managing digital content enables greater scalability, decoupled frontends, and multichannel delivery. Examples of this include:

• React/Next.js frontends for building user interfaces and providing features for building production-ready applications, respectively.
• Mobile apps, which can be streamlined and updated by using a CMS.
• Digital kiosks, which can have remote access of content across multiple kiosks simultaneously.

Conclusion

WordPress allows for multiple different features that can enable enterprises to flourish. If you want to be successful with the program, your vision, technical foundation, and strategic integration are important. WordPress should be treated like any other enterprise-level platform. You should do your due diligence as you would with custom-build CMSes or proprietary solutions. When building complex stacks, look into hybrid integrations and specialized service providers.