• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, October 21, 2015

WPP and open cloud platform provider Acquia are expanding their relationship with a new global partnership, the companies said Wednesday. 

The new partnership brings together WPP’s existing Acquia partners -- including Globant, Hogarth, Mirum, POSSIBLE, Rockfish, VML and Wunderman -- under the umbrella of the WPP-Acquia Alliance. The Alliance becomes the world’s largest Acquia "Certified Partner" and its members will draw on Acquia software, training, collaborate on new business pitches, and share project resources.

Acquia provides an open cloud platform for building, delivering and optimizing digital experiences. More than 4,000 organizations--including Intuit, Warner Music Group and Stanford University--rely on the Acquia Platform to unify content, community and commerce. 

The company harnesses the open source content management system Drupal, which was created by Acquia founder and CTO Dries Buytaert. The Acquia Platform provides a multi-site management solution, support, and environment for developing and maintaining Drupal sites.

Under the agreement, WPP agencies will provide creative, UX and development resources to Acquia clients, while Acquia will provide its open cloud platform to the WPP-Acquia Alliance to deliver projects. 

The WPP-Acquia Alliance is part of WPP’s Technology Partnership Program, an initiative led by Chief Digital Officer and Chief Strategy Officer Scott Spirit. 

“The growth of the ‘API [application programming interface] economy’ is changing marketing, and clients require the ability to integrate existing technologies, data sources and media into a central platform,” said Spirit.  WPP is committed to working closely with technology leaders, and the creation of the WPP-Acquia Alliance gives us an open source digital experience practice at a time when the market is growing rapidly.”

Added Tom Erickson, CEO Acquia: “The combined WPP-Acquia team, and the disruptive business they’re building, will deliver transformative outcomes to those organizations that are thinking ahead to a mobile-first, browserless world.”