PROJECT SNAPSHOT
Client: Northern Border Regional Commission (NBRC)
Industry: Federal Government
Solution: Drupal 11 Website Modernization
Services: CMS Implementation, Content Migration, Accessibility Improvements, Ongoing Support
Website: nbrc.gov
The Northern Border Regional Commission (NBRC) is a federal-state partnership dedicated to investing in economic and community development across parts of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York.
Through its grant programs and partnerships, NBRC supports communities by strengthening infrastructure, creating economic opportunities, and improving quality of life throughout the region.
Its website, nbrc.gov, serves as a central resource for grant applicants, community partners, and the public, connecting them with funding opportunities, program information, news, reports, and other important public resources.
After nearly a decade of partnership with The Canton Group, NBRC set out to transition its digital platform to a solution that would provide greater flexibility, stronger security controls, improved accessibility, and more ownership over day-to-day website management.
The goal was not simply to update the website's appearance. NBRC needed a sustainable platform that would allow its team to manage content more efficiently while supporting the organization's ongoing mission of serving communities across the Northern Border region.
As NBRC's digital needs evolved, its previous website platform no longer provided the level of control and flexibility the organization needed. Simple content updates, structural changes, and ongoing website management often required technical assistance, limiting how quickly staff could make updates and respond to changing communication needs.
For a federal organization responsible for sharing grant opportunities, reports, announcements, and public information, having direct control over website content is essential.
NBRC also needed a platform that aligned with today's government website expectations, including:
-
Stronger security practices and ongoing maintenance capabilities.
-
Improved accessibility and compliance support.
-
More effective user and account management.
-
Greater flexibility for organizing and maintaining content.
-
A foundation that could support future growth.
In addition, years of accumulated content created an opportunity to evaluate what information was still relevant and useful. Rather than simply moving existing content into a new system, NBRC wanted the migration process to serve as an opportunity to review, organize, and improve its digital content.
The Canton Group's relationship with NBRC extends beyond the Drupal 11 project itself. The Canton Group originally built NBRC's Laravel-based website, then provided fully managed AWS cloud hosting and platform support for it starting in 2019. That history, including hosting infrastructure, proactive monitoring, and technical support, gave The Canton Group deep familiarity with NBRC's systems well before the CMS rebuild began.
When it came time to move to a new CMS, The Canton Group implemented a Drupal 11 Content Management System (CMS) designed around NBRC's needs as a federal organization. This wasn't a routine version upgrade. Moving from a Laravel-based platform to Drupal 11 required The Canton Group to map application logic, content structures, data models, and user-facing functionality from an entirely different framework into Drupal's architecture. The project included a complete content migration, updated information architecture, responsive design improvements, accessibility enhancements, and ongoing maintenance and support.
A key part of the project was giving NBRC ownership throughout the migration process. Instead of automatically transferring all existing content, The Canton Group configured the new Drupal content structure and provided NBRC staff with the ability to evaluate years of website content, remove outdated information, and begin their new platform with a cleaner, more organized digital foundation.
The new website was built using the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) as a foundation, incorporating customized elements based on The Canton Group's experience supporting other government digital platforms. This provided NBRC with a clean, accessible design framework aligned with federal website standards while allowing room for customization based on the agency's unique needs.
Accessibility was built into more than just the visual design. The new platform includes semantic content structures and editorial tooling that guide content authors toward accessible output as they create and update pages. This approach goes beyond meeting compliance requirements at launch. It's designed to help NBRC sustain Section 508 compliance as the platform grows and agency staff manage content independently over time.
The new Drupal platform introduced several capabilities designed to simplify website management, including:
-
A centralized media library for easier management and reuse of documents and digital assets.
-
Improved user account management and administrative controls.
-
Content revisions, allowing editors to review and restore previous versions when needed.
-
Enhanced search functionality.
-
More flexible page creation, content organization, and taxonomy management.
-
Improved accessibility support through Drupal enhancements and USWDS-based components.
The Canton Group also enhanced the Drupal administrative experience through the Gin Admin theme and configured additional modules and tools, including CKEditor 5 enhancements, Redirect, Pathauto, and Metatag, helping NBRC staff manage content more effectively while supporting search engine optimization and website governance.
Beyond the initial implementation, The Canton Group provides ongoing Drupal maintenance and support, including regular core and module updates, security patches, and technical assistance to help keep NBRC's website secure, compliant, and reliable.
This is backed by a fully managed AWS hosting environment built for resilience and uptime. NBRC's platform runs on separate production and non-production environments, with daily automated backups through AWS Relational Database Service (including point-in-time recovery) and Elastic File System for resilient file storage. Auto-scaling and DDoS protection help the site stay available and responsive, while AWS CloudWatch and Pingdom provide continuous monitoring so The Canton Group can identify and resolve issues before they affect users. That same managed hosting foundation positions The Canton Group to support NBRC's infrastructure and cloud needs as they continue to evolve.
The Drupal migration provided NBRC with a new digital platform that gives its staff significantly greater control over website management while improving performance, security, and long-term maintainability.
Today, NBRC's internal team can manage website updates, create new content, maintain documents, and make routine changes independently without relying on developers for everyday tasks. The platform provides the flexibility and administrative control needed for a small team while maintaining the security practices expected of a government organization.
The migration also delivered measurable performance improvements. Following the launch of the new Drupal platform, NBRC's website saw improvements across several key performance metrics:
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Page Load Time | 744 ms | 287 ms |
| Page Size | 5.67 MB | 2.81 MB |
| Number of Requests | 41 | 24 |
| Performance Grade | 71/100 | 92/100 |
Source: The Canton Group measures and tracks these performance metrics via Pingdom.
Page load time improved by roughly 61%, and page size was cut nearly in half. That’s a meaningful gain for site visitors on slower connections, including rural constituents across the Northern Border region.
Consistent, Verified Uptime — NBRC's AWS-hosted environment has met its 99% uptime requirement with the website being at 100% uptime throughout 2026 so far. The team achieved a zero-downtime migration from the Laravel framework to the Drupal 11 content management system.
Beyond performance improvements, the new platform established a stronger foundation for the future. NBRC now has a secure, scalable content management system that supports ongoing modernization efforts and allows the organization to continue improving its digital services for communities throughout the region.
Through nearly a decade of collaboration, The Canton Group continues to support NBRC's mission by helping the organization maintain a reliable, accessible, and user-focused digital presence.
