Drupal 8 is the biggest and most radical update Drupal has ever made. With Drupal 8, it is now much easier to create content than previous versions. Thanks to its API-first structure, it offers a great environment for integration with large and complex systems. The Drupal Community has taken great steps towards these by identifying the points open for development in the old versions, has made the important changes in Drupal 8 by focusing on the subject of “difficult use”, which is one of its most important criticisms.
Drupal 7's Support Ends!
The software is a living entity. It is born, develops and ends his life. This life circle also applies to versions of the software. The release of the new version of the software generally brings new features in many subjects such as security, performance, user-friendliness, and design.
In Drupal, strategic almost every stage is discussed many years ago at the DrupalCon events throughout the community and the paths to be followed are determined accordingly. The jobs to focus on are determined in each version. The entire strategic line is published on drupal.org. (https://www.drupal.org/about/strategic-initiatives) According to this line, the support of the old version will be announced at least 3 years ago and all users will be prepared for this.
In this flow, Drupal 7 is approaching the end of life (EOL) more than a decade after its first release date, January 2011. After November 2021, Drupal 7 will not be supported by the Drupal Community So what does this mean for Drupal 7 users? What are the options of Drupal 7 users?
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Leaving the software on its own
This is the spontaneous option when the process is not followed or when indispensable services are ignored for software survival such as maintenance, update, backup. Do you think it is the easiest and most cost-effective thing to do? On the contrary, this is the worst and costly option. This option is synonymous with waiting for your software to be hacked. Drupal's crowded and qualified security team (https://security.drupal.org/team-members), focuses on the vulnerabilities of new versions since its foundation, support for the old version continues for a while and then ends. Since there is no community support, your old version software faces data and system security risks. Don't ask, "Why would someone specifically attack my site?". With the automatic bots that attack all software using old technology collectively, the infrastructure of millions of sites like yours. The result: data loss, time loss, and much greater costs.
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Using another CMS
Although giving up Drupal and using another CMS is an option, we can easily say that this preference is not a logical solution. According to the Gartner report, Drupal's flagship Acquia has been in the top three for the past 6 years in corporate solutions of $ 250,000 or more. It will probably be a big disappointment to give up a CMS which is one of the largest open source communities in the world, incorporates the latest technologies in each version and is a Ferrari of content management systems and try a different CMS. In our opinion, another technological area is difficult to find where the proverb “Getting off the horse to ride the donkey” will be used more than that. In this case, you will probably not even find the comfort of Drupal 7, the old version of Drupal, in your new content management system, and it will be costly to return.
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Getting "long term support" from a private company
In the case of the end of life, if the user still wants to stay in the old version, they can also get security support service from a private company. For example, myDropWizard, the most known company that provides long-term support for Drupal, has a very experienced team in security.
However, as you can imagine, this service, which is a very special service, costs much more than standard security support costs. For example, for Drupal 6, which ended community support in February 2016, the standard support package costs $ 625 per month, and the corporate package is $ 1250 per month. -
Upgrade from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8
As we mentioned in our article in detail "Why Drupal 8?", one of the biggest changes of Drupal 8 version is the ease of transition to Drupal 9 and later versions, which shows that the most logical option for Drupal 7 users is to switch to Drupal 8. It is worth saying that this option, which as Binbiriz, offer to Drupal 7 users, is also recommended by the Drupal Community itself. It does not seem very meaningful to wait for the release of Drupal 9 as it is now as easy to switch from Drupal 8, which is a major version change to Drupal 9, to a minor version change, as in the transition from Drupal 8.1 to Drupal 8.2. Also, by upgrading to Drupal 8 immediately, you can use many new features as soon as possible.
As a result; If you are using Drupal 6; We urgently recommend starting the version upgrade to Drupal 8, and if you are using Drupal 7, we recommend planning this transition period.
You can contact our team about your project and get an offer.
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