American Institute for Research

American Institute for Research (AIR)

Enterprise-level digital transformation requires a careful balance between preserving decades of high-value data and adopting modern web architectures. Over a two-year engagement, We led the technical execution to migrate, consolidate, and modernize approximately 12 content-heavy web platforms for the American Institutes for Research (AIR), moving them from legacy systems to a highly resilient, modern infrastructure.

The Objective

AIR’s digital footprint spanned a complex network of legacy Drupal 7 sites containing massive repositories of research data, publications, and community tools. The objective was clear but highly technical: safely execute a massive content migration, replace fractured community features, and completely redesign legacy web applications using a modern, flexible architectural pattern—all while minimizing system downtime.

Technical & Strategic Execution

Enterprise-Scale Data Migration

Migrating a single site is straightforward; orchestrating a coordinated migration for 12 data-heavy properties requires custom engineering.

Custom Pipeline Engineering: Developed specialized migration plugins and database parsers to sanitize, map, and transfer complex relational content models from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9.

Data Integrity Maintenance: Designed rigorous validation systems to ensure that thousands of deeply nested research documents, taxonomies, and cross-referenced historical publications retained perfect structural integrity post-migration.

Architectural Modernization & Decoupled Applications

To future-proof AIR’s most complex interactive tools, I shifted their legacy, monolithic setups toward a modern, decoupled (headless) engineering pattern.

Decoupled Infrastructure: Re-engineered legacy web applications by separating the backend data layer from the user interface. We utilized Drupal strictly as a robust Content Management Service (CMS) engine to deliver clean data via structured APIs.

Modern Frontend Execution: Rebuilt the client-facing user interfaces using Vue.js, delivering an incredibly fast, dynamic, and seamless user experience that eliminated slow, traditional server-side page reloads.

Community Engagement & Reusable Systems

Beyond static research content, the platforms required secure, robust spaces for professional collaboration and community interaction.

Unified Engagement Spaces: Implemented and customized Open Social frameworks within the ecosystem, creating secure, high-engagement platforms for researchers and stakeholders.

Component-Driven Engineering: Designed and coded a library of reusable, custom backend modules. This modular approach allowed AIR’s internal teams to rapidly deploy new business features across any of the 12 sites without rewriting foundational code.

Architectural Impact

The transition completely reshaped how AIR manages its digital ecosystem. By replacing a fragmented network of legacy sites with a standardized, modern web architecture, the institution achieved significant long-term results:

Operational Efficiency: Managing updates, security compliance, and core features became centralized, drastically reducing engineering overhead across all 12 properties.

System Performance: Decoupling the heavy web applications resulted in immediate page-load improvements and a significantly better mobile browsing experience for global researchers.

Data Security: Moving away from end-of-life legacy software onto an active, modern platform secured their extensive library of intellectual property against modern vulnerabilities.