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National Firefighters Corps: a Drupal architecture for the PA

Content governance, territorial autonomy, and high-availability infrastructure

Logo Corpo Nazionale Vigili Del Fuoco

National Firefighters Corps

The National Fire Department is a critical institution for the country's security. Its portal is a strategic asset for public rescue that requires advanced systems management. As a senior technology partner, bmeme engineered a Drupal ecosystem capable of orchestrating Territorial Commands' national presence, ensuring governance of digital assets, full data sovereignty, and total accessibility (AgID).

We conducted an architectural audit of Drupal and performed reverse engineering to transform a compromised codebase into solid infrastructure and complete the refactoring of a complex, scalable portal.

Robust infrastructure for national safety

The collaboration with bmeme was initiated to address the need to complete a complex project that had been started without the necessary specialisation in Drupal technology.

Our intervention transformed an incomplete and underperforming codebase into a robust digital ecosystem, combining editorial flexibility with an enterprise-level infrastructure.

Main goals

We addressed the issue of an incomplete and underperforming platform. First, we conducted an architectural audit of Drupal, critically analyzing the codebase through reverse engineering to identify vulnerabilities and inefficiencies. This enabled us to develop an immediate remediation plan and refactor a complex portal. We rebuilt the original information architecture and optimized the software logic, making it scalable and secure.

Refactoring & rescue

Recovering and consolidating custom logic according to Drupal best practices.

Territorial governance (Minisites)

Creating isolated sections for Territorial Commands and the Sports Office.

Editorial flexibility

Introducing modular tools for autonomous and versatile content management.

Accessibility and AgID compliance

Strict alignment with UI and accessibility guidelines for the Italian Public Administration.

Magnifier

Focus on Digital Accessibility

Compliance with AgID guidelines and achieving the highest accessibility requirements (WCAG) are not just regulatory obligations for the Public Administration; they are pillars of our development ethics. It is vital that a public portal is accessible to every citizen, in order to ensure visual consistency.

Drupal

Drupal development by Bmeme

Our work with the National Firefighters Corps exemplifies our commitment to quality. We design and develop enterprise-level Drupal solutions that prioritise security, performance and scalability.

Architecture and implemented solutions

01

Minisites and isolated editorial teams

A minisite system has been successfully implemented within the central portal. This solution enables territorial branches and the Sports Office to independently manage section homepages and internal pages in distinct areas, ensuring local operational autonomy without compromising national site integrity.

02

Editorial versatility with Paragraphs

In order to overcome the rigidity of standard templates, we introduced Paragraphs. This approach enables content editors to compose pages in a modular and dynamic way, thereby significantly increasing web page versatility while maintaining impeccable standardized layouts.

03

AgID UI and training

The graphical theme has been developed in strict compliance with AgID guidelines. In addition to technical development, Bmeme conducted specialised Drupal training sessions, transferring the necessary skills to provide the National Firefighters Corps' team with full editorial autonomy.

04

Multi-layer infrastructure and Ansible automation

To eliminate any Single Point of Failure (SPOF), we designed a distributed architecture physically separated across multiple levels. We manage all provisioning via Ansible Playbooks to ensure fast, secure, and replicable installations across development, testing, and production environments.

In this context, we supported an internal team of experts in systems and networking who had to manage a very complex application stack. Manual provisioning would have posed an excessive operational burden and constant technological challenges.

By integrating Ansible automation into their existing Jenkins server, we created an architecture that allows complex operations to be managed through guided, secure processes. This approach dramatically reduces the pressure on the team by transforming critical procedures into replicable, low-risk workflows.

05

Performance and persistence with Redis

Integration of a Cache Layer based on Redis Sentinel has led to a substantial enhancement in global performance. By moving cache management to a dedicated server, we were able to reduce the load on the database and ensure fast response times even during periods of high traffic.

Technologies and Tools

CMS

Drupal

Automation

Ansible

Caching

Redis Sentinel

Accessibility

WCAG standards / AgID guidelines

Evolutionary governance and stability

4+

Years of ongoing collaboration

Results and value delivered

After more than 4 years of continuous collaboration, the National Firefighters Corps' portal is now a model of efficiency for the Public Administration. Bmeme successfully overcame a significant technical challenge, transforming it into a reliable and user-friendly digital ecosystem.

The operational autonomy achieved by editorial teams is a testament to the efficacy of an approach that leverages technology to enhance national safety.

Explore the National Firefighters Corps institutional portal ↗

Case Study Vigili Del Fuoco

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