5 questions about the end-of-life of Drupal 8
Drupal 8 reaches its end-of-life on November 2. If you are still using this CMS then you will no longer receive support in the form of security updates and new features may no longer be compatible. In this article, Developer Operations Christopher Kirk gives you all the information you need to keep your website stable and secure.
What is the risk of not updating to Drupal 9?
Especially if you process personal data or other sensitive data, it is essential to stay up-to-date with the latest security releases to stay fully protected. If you don't upgrade to Drupal 9 when Drupal 8 reaches its "end-of-life," then the clock starts ticking and hackers have the opportunity to take advantage of vulnerabilities in your code. These can be exploited to gain anonymous access, giving hackers the ability to upload and access files or even post their own code directly.
What is the impact of upgrading from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9?
Unlike migrating from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8, moving from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9 only requires an upgrade. This means there is generally little impact for you as a site owner. Websites that contain multiple custom features do require a bit more attention. Through a quick technical assessment, we determine which modules are standard and which are custom. From there, we create a migration plan to ensure a smooth upgrade to Drupal 9.
Because we are dedicated to delivering solid and secure digital products for our clients, our migrations and upgrades are always fully tested before we implement them. This means that you won't experience any negative impacts beyond regular downtime when our hosting providers update their systems. After that, we continue to implement updates on a monthly or quarterly basis, depending on the agreed upon service level.
What are the advantages of Drupal 9?
Whereas Drupal 8 was a huge leap from its predecessor, Drupal 9 is more of an evolution. Drupal 9 continues the API-first approach with a headless CMS that uses the same framework. However, it also includes a number of improvements over Drupal 8, such as more support for responsive images, faster initial load times and less data consumption. In short, migrating to Drupal 9 will future-proof your website making it more secure, faster, more compatible and more intuitive to use.
What if my website is still running on Drupal 7?
Then it's a completely different story. Although the version number suggests otherwise, it will be another year before Drupal 7 also reaches its end-of-life. Nevertheless, we strongly recommend making a plan to migrate to Drupal 9 now. Read this article by our Chief Technology Officer Martijn Houtman on the end-of-life of Drupal 7 to find out what you need to know.
Could you use our help?
As Drupal specialists, we have a lot of experience with both upgrades and migrations to Drupal 9. Unsure about the best approach for your own website?