AP: Public S3 file asset storage

[timcosgrove]

Background

Problem Statement

How might we improve speed and stability of accessing CMS file assets?

Affected users and stakeholders

• Front-end developers using content-build
• VA.gov-wide developers who depend on content-build for CI
• CMS Editors

Hypothesis

Our hypothesis is that storing CMS file assets on public S3 will lead to increased stability and speed.

We believe that storing CMS file assets will achieve faster content-build and content release times. We'll know that to be true when we measure timing of content-build in different scenarios and find faster times for those scenarios after the change.

Assumptions

• Removing file transfer from the content-build process will result in faster content-build runs. This will be validated through measurement of timing of content builds before and after the change.
• Moving CMS asset storage to will not result in any functional or visual change to VA.gov, nor will it require any template changes be made by front-end teams. This will be validated through testing of the output of different content-build scenarios.

Acceptance Criteria

• All CMS file asset (media) storage will be moved to a publicly accessible S3 bucket, so that it can be accessed without being transferred during the content-build process.
• All steps within content-build that deal with CMS asset transfer will be removed, so that transfer of images does not needlessly consume resources and time.
• Media files will continue to display correctly and/or be accessible, both within the CMS and in statically generated content.

Change management triage

The change represented by this user story will:

• Be a site-wide change to appearance or key functionality (such as log-in process)
• Be a specific change that requires more than 30 minutes of work by a user to meet a publishing requirement
• Remove a piece of functionality (such as restricting editing functions, or “hardening”)
• Require action by some or all users by a specific deadline
• Change the front end and be highly visible to the public
• Noticeable performance improvements (publishing speed, predictability)

If you selected an item above, open a new issue using the change management template.

If you did not select an item above, update issues/PRs in GitHub but don’t plan for change management.

Labels

(You can delete this section once it's complete)

• Issue type (red) (defaults to "Epic")
• CMS subsystem (green)
• CMS practice area (blue)
• CMS workstream (orange)
• CMS-supported product (black)

CMS Team

Please check the team(s) that will do this work.

• Program
• Platform CMS Team
• Sitewide Crew
• ⭐️ Sitewide CMS
• ⭐️ Public Websites
• ⭐️ Facilities
• ⭐️ User support

[TheBoatyMcBoatFace]

To-Do:

• Determine Content-Build speed improvements
  • avg of 98s for the Download Drupal Assets step;
• Quantify dev experience changes

[timcosgrove]

Dupe of #14052 14052