Drupal 7's Official End of Life - Now What?
Initially, the planned Drupal 7 End of Life was in November 2021, but it was changed to November 2022, citing the global pandemic and website owners' requests.
Drupal's core committee, which oversees technical developments and other aspects of the business growth, is supportive enough to help the users prepare for seamless website migrations by extending the time frame. On the flip side, your CMS needs to remain secure, leveraging the latest technologies in its successor versions. What should you do?
This timing is pushing users to upgrade to Drupal 9, skipping v8 alltogether (inevitable for Drupal 7).
Drupal 7 end-of-life is in November of 2022!
Drupal websites have enjoyed an extended length of service on version 7, and can run without issue until November 2022. The news of the content management system hitting it’s end of life is being met with preparations for Drupal 7 to 9 migrations.
There is still one more year plus a couple of months to plan for your Drupal 9 development.
With a Drupal migration inevitable, if your organization is like most we talk to (who aren’t thrilled with using Drupal as their website CMS), now would be a good time to discuss other content management system options.
The primary reasons our clients give us for wanting to migrate to a different platform, the v7 EOL aside, are:
- Large learning curve
- Major updates are a large effort
- Drupal consumes a significant amount of server resources (slow)
- For large websites, contributed module compatibility can be an issue
- Doesn't work well for custom applications
Staying on Drupal? Here’s the risks of NOT migrating to v9:
There are many risks that your website will undergo by not migrating to the latest version. Find below the results of not migrating:
- New updates won't be available.
- No more bug fixes or active development
- The possibilities of hitting a dead-end are plentiful.
- Security concerns grow tougher than ever.
- Integration and functionality hiccups are frequent.
- Drupal developers or enthusiasts will no longer support lower versions.
Many of our clients are still on Drupal 7, which makes it also necessary to stay up to date with PHP. If you choose to stay on Drupal 7 after 2022, we recommend that you should engage a vendor for a long-term support contract.
Drupal 7 to 9 migration will be our first recommendation, but finding a long-term support partner will help you patch and work using your Drupal 7 until you are ready to move to 9 or find a replacement platform
Why Upgrade to Drupal 9 and not Drupal 8?
Throughout Drupal 8's lifespan, many features were getting added one after the other. These features served the purpose of solving problems, but it also led to the previous code deprecating, which should no longer use it due to better alternatives.
A few of Drupal 9 and 8 share the same codebase that can be easily removed when it is no longer necessary. This ensures a seamless integration process for your website.
Have questions on upgrading to Drupal 9, or re-platforming to another CMS?
Whatever is your requirement, we got it covered...
Our certified Drupal experts have worked on hundreds of complex and ambitious projects and can deliver the best results; with 15+ years of experience in Drupal CMS, our experts will walk you through the steps on upgrading to Drupal 9 or discussing your options on migrating to other platforms.
As mentioned above, we are ready to help you. Your website development, migration, or upgrade need not happen immediately. Talk to our experts to learn more about a proper migration plan, and discuss if moving to another platform makes sense --and stay rest assured your website is in good hands.
It is the right time to make the big move!