I’ve been planning on writing a management control panel and billing system for thing.net for a while. I’ve tried a few commercial ones, but I’m not really happy with them. They tend to be limited to managing a single server with a single application stack and closed source, cost way to much if they can manage a heterogenous environment, and generally aren’t all that usable if they’re open source. The closest to ideal I’ve found is Psoft’s H-Spere. Currently, I’m using clientexec, but only as a billing tool.
So I’ve come up with a list of requirements:
lo and behold! The other day, I realized Drupal already has modules to provide everything but the provisioning system. So my work is we’ll say 50% done, because integrating/configuring ecommerce, CivicCRM, and Projects will be a bit of work. So I’m going to make a run at doing this in Drupal. After the holidays I’ll publish the design docs I’ve been working on…
For now I’ve got to go or I’ll miss the bus upstate for thanksgiving.