Global, multilingual, and scalable websites for mission-driven organizations

Complex coordination slowed reviews

Aten Design Group builds websites for nonprofits, education, and government. Clients like Health Care Without Harm publish content across languages, regions, and time zones, so teams need to see real changes quickly and give clear feedback.

Travis Tomka, Senior Developer, explained: “Aten is a full-service strategy, design, and development agency. We focus on higher ed, government, and mission-driven organizations like Health Care Without Harm." Work often involves distributed teams, regional content owners, and tight timelines. Standardizing how work is built and reviewed keeps everyone aligned.

For Aten’s client’s global, multilingual scope, the priority was to consolidate onto one Git-based workflow where each branch automatically creates a live, production-like environment, so editors and regional owners review real changes in context, cut repetition, and keep development, testing, and production aligned.

What Aten needed:

• A single way to build and review across regions and languages
• Fewer manual steps in setup and deployment
• Live previews that non-technical stakeholders could open and understand

One workflow on Upsun

Upsun simplifies how Aten builds and scales Drupal sites for international clients. With Upsun, the team follows one consistent process that reduces handoffs and guesswork.

Day-to-day control matters on busy projects. Tomka is direct: "We have control over all of the resources in the environment, and we customize them exactly as we need them at a really granular level. Our clients have access to everything, too." When content spikes or a region expects a surge, the team tunes resources and keeps work moving without changing how people collaborate.

How work flows now

• Each branch spins up a live environment that mirrors production.
• Teams share a link, see the change in context, and give feedback right away.
• Approvals move faster because everyone is reviewing the same thing.

With production-like environments, editors validate copy and layout in place. Developers avoid translating screenshots into assumptions. Project leads get clearer timelines because feedback cycles are shorter and focused.

Multi-region publishing made simple

Health Care Without Harm serves audiences in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Some content is shared globally, much of it is regional, and each market needs a site that feels local. Aten set up the project so content and look adjust based on the active domain. As Tomka explains, "We used the Domain Access module so the site can switch the color palette and the content based on the active domain."

This keeps shared assets consistent while giving regional teams room to tailor pages for language and local needs. Because each branch has a live environment, editors check translations, imagery, and layout in a space that behaves like production. If something needs to change, the team updates the branch and shares a fresh link. Decisions happen faster because everyone can see the same thing at the same time.

The model reduces risk, too. Less manual coordination means fewer chances for configuration drift and last-minute surprises. A change that works in a review environment is more likely to work after merge because it has already run on a close copy of production.

Continuous delivery with clear reviews

Upsun turned a complex process into a steady rhythm: build, preview, review, ship. Automatic environments keep developers confident and client teams involved at every step. Reviews are not blocked by staging windows. A link is created with the environment, shared with the right people, and the team moves on with clear feedback.

Consistent environments and shared access keep everyone aligned during reviews, from the client's internal developers to Aten's team and project stakeholders. Fast feedback loops reduce rework and protect timelines. After launch, new ideas can be explored in a branch and reviewed by regional owners without interrupting day-to-day operations.

Results at a glance

• Simplified management: Spin up review environments from Git with the same setup used in production
• Faster delivery: Live preview links speed up QA and client sign-off
• Unified workflow: One path from development to production across languages and regions
• Reliable rollouts: Validate changes in production-like environments before release
• Better collaboration: Share a link and review together, no more back-and-forth screenshots

Looking ahead

Aten is applying this approach to new Drupal projects and reusing what works. Regional owners get clear review paths. Developers get solid guardrails. Project leads get predictable schedules. Upsun helps the agency focus on what matters most: reaching global audiences with clear, accessible experiences that reflect their mission and deliver results.