[wp-hackers] Configuring WordPress Environment / Server

[Mike Schinkel]

On Oct 30, 2011, at 6:44 PM, Jeffrey Nolte wrote:
>>> Single install of WP to manage all sites (using symlinks to point to respective directories etc)
>> 
>> Are you planning to manage all your clients sites on a single install, or did I misunderstand?
> 
> that is correct, but if I am doing this wrong I am completely open to suggestions as this is in very early stages.  

Others may have different opinions but I would worry that you'd end up creating dependencies for all your clients sites by the weakest link of one of your client's site.  If you add a plugin for one client you could end up breaking all client's sites (unless you are running Multi-site, more on that below.)  

While it can simplify some things I think you'd be better off running separate installs for your separate clients, identifying what other issues you'll need to manage and then coming up which processes to manage those issues instead. Otherwise all your client's sites will be coupled and single points of failure (such a code hack) will be able to bring down everyone's site. Of course, that's my just current opinion.

-Mike
P.S. Note for fans of Multisite: In the case of one client who needs many sites, or one company offering sites to people who sign up for multi-tentant architecture Multisite is a great solution.  But I'm assuming Jeffrey's company Moxie Media Group is an agency producing fully customized sites each with different sets of plugins for different clients, and I'm thinking Multisite is probably not the best solution. Again, others may have different opinions and if so I'd welcome learning about the success of those approaches that may differ from mine.