Effective immediately, COE will not accommodate new requests for locally hosted, public-facing websites, applications, or web projects. Build new public-facing content on an approved platform: OSU Drupal in Acquia Cloud, OSU WordPress, AWS, or Azure.

Contact coe.support@oregonstate.edu for help getting started with any of these platforms.

Beginning Monday, June 26, 2028, COE-hosted public_html (LAMP) content will no longer be publicly accessible from the internet. Access will be limited to campus networks or VPN.

If your content needs to stay public, move it to an approved platform before that date.

Where should web content live?

Need / use case Recommended platform Best for Publicly accessible? Notes
Official public-facing website OSU Drupal in Acquia Cloud College, school, department, lab, center, program, research, and service websites Yes Preferred platform for most official OSU/COE public web content. Use it for sites that represent an official unit, service, research group, or program.
Blog or lightweight public publishing OSU WordPress Blogs, news-style updates, informal publishing, and simple faculty or group sites Yes Best for content organized around posts, updates, or simple pages rather than a custom web application.
Custom public website or web application AWS or Azure Custom code, specialized hosting, frameworks, APIs, databases, or nonstandard platforms Yes Use when Drupal or WordPress cannot meet your technical requirements. May involve costs, security review, compliance requirements, and ongoing maintenance.
Internal documentation or shared content SharePoint Internal procedures, team resources, committee materials, working documents, and shared files for OSU audiences No (internal only) Use for content that does not need to be public, such as knowledge bases, documentation, and collaboration spaces.
Software development and version control COE GitLab Source code, repositories, issues, CI/CD, and project history Not a publishing platform Use for development workflows and source control. GitLab is not a web hosting or public publishing platform.
Legacy instructional, experimental, or personal content COE LAMP / public_html Self-service HTML, client-side JavaScript, PHP, and MySQL in COE network home directories Temporarily, until June 26, 2028 Legacy and self-supported. Not recommended for new public-facing content.

COE LAMP / public_html hosting

COE's LAMP platform (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) is a self-service, self-supported environment for instructional, experimental, and personal use. Files live in your network home directory. It is not recommended or supported for new public-facing content.

The platform supports:

  • HTML
  • Client-side JavaScript
  • PHP
  • MySQL

It does not support web applications that need persistent server processes, custom application servers, non-standard network ports, or server-side frameworks such as Python, Ruby, Java, or Node.js.

When your needs do not fit the standard options

If your project needs more than basic HTML, client-side JavaScript, PHP, or MySQL, or if Drupal, WordPress, SharePoint, GitLab, AWS, and Azure do not meet your needs, contact COE IT before choosing another platform.

We evaluate requests for new tools or platforms on:

  • Scalability: whether the tool can support multiple users and groups.
  • Manageability: whether it can be deployed and maintained without significant added complexity.
  • Uniqueness: whether it provides features not already available through supported tools or platforms.

Some options may involve additional costs, security review, compliance requirements, or ongoing maintenance.

Need help choosing?

Contact COE IT Support at coe.support@oregonstate.edu before you start a new public-facing web project, migrate an existing site, or select a custom hosting platform.