Devolutions is a software company specializing in remote connection and password management solutions for IT professionals. With a worldwide audience of security-conscious users, it was particularly important to Devolutions that their website be as reliable as possible. And with a team of developers who also split their time between software engineering and writing technical content for their users, it was crucial that their CMS would require little to no ongoing maintenance to keep it performing well.

The Devolutions team began using CloudCannon in 2023 to manage their marketing websites and their comprehensive documentation. Their key requirements included a static site approach for enhanced security, with a user-friendly interface for non-technical team members, and efficient developer workflows.

Why CloudCannon?

Devolutions chose CloudCannon as their content management system (CMS) for several reasons.

  Ease of use: Both developers and content writers at Devolutions find CloudCannon’s Content Editor an intuitive way to update their websites and documentation — and it's significantly faster to update than their previous website!

  Git-based workflow: CloudCannon's Git-based CMS means all site files are stored in Devolutions' own Git repositories, allowing for easy version control and collaboration between their development and content teams.

  Eleventy support: Devolutions needs fast site builds, so Eleventy was a natural choice for the team — and CloudCannon is completely compatible with Eleventy!

  Security: CloudCannon's support for static sites aligns with Devolutions' security priorities. Further, CloudCannon’s SOC2-Type 2 Certification offers the Devolutions team enhanced data security and risk mitigation measures.

  Integration with existing tools and infrastructure: Devolutions uses Azure Storage Explorer to manage their media assets — and CloudCannon’s Digital Asset Management supports Azure along with several other major DAM providers.

  Documentation and support: CloudCannon’s comprehensive documentation, guides, and responsive customer support made the setup process straightforward.

Implementation

Devolutions began migrating their websites to CloudCannon in mid-2023. Prior to this point their sites had been built using .NET — a Microsoft product that initially fitted their development workflow, but had several issues: a steep learning curve for new team members, stability issues for new releases (bringing an accompanying maintenance burden), and a heavy-handed vendor lock-in.

The transition to Eleventy and CloudCannon was a smooth one, with the development team finding the setup process straightforward using CloudCannon’s existing documentation and guides — and any remaining questions the team had were answered promptly by CloudCannon’s support team.

CloudCannon’s key features and benefits, a year on

In just over a year of using CloudCannon, the Devolutions team have found several features to be invaluable:

1. Visual Editing: The ten members of Devolutions’ marketing and product marketing teams rely on the Visual Editor to edit and build out new pages for their website — without needing help from developers. With CloudCannon’s Bookshop integration for Eleventy, the teams can focus on their messaging and the site’s appearance, rather than having to abstract or guess what their pages will look like.
2. The Content Editor: Devolutions’ five technical writers primarily use CloudCannon’s Content Editor to quickly write and edit their guides and documentation articles. The Content Editor integrates with Devolutions’ approach to content management, with full support for custom snippets and Eleventy shortcodes. It's all working so well, in fact, that Devolutions is planning to bring their blog over to CloudCannon as well!
3. Fast branching: This feature significantly improved Devolutions’ workflow, allowing for quicker branch creation and more efficient management of staging environments. (Fast branching, released in September 2024, lets users copy their most recent successful build from the parent branch, even before the new branch’s build has completed.)
4. Fine-grained permissions and custom permission groups: Devolutions can assign specific roles and permissions on a per-project basis, enabling better control over user access.

The results speak for themselves

Since implementing CloudCannon, Devolutions has experienced improved publishing workflows and better collaboration between their development and marketing teams. CloudCannon’s ease of use has enabled non-technical team members to manage content efficiently, while developers can focus on building out new components and features.

We’re really pleased with CloudCannon’s quick response time and their ability to integrate solutions into their product.

With CloudCannon, Devolutions has a secure, efficient, and user-friendly solution for managing all content across their websites. CloudCannon’s focus on static sites, combined with its powerful features and integrations, has helped Devolutions streamline their web development processes while maintaining the high level of security their products — and users — demand.