Did you know? Over 50% of all Drupal-powered sites are still running on Drupal 7. Albeit, D7 was released on January 5, 2011, yet, it is still powering a majority of all Drupal sites. This might be surprising to many of you but that’s the ultimate truth. However, the time has come to bid adieu to this much-loved Drupal 7 CMS. The reason for this, Drupal 7 is slated to reach end-of-life soon and will receive community support until November 28, 2022.
Earlier, it was decided that Drupal 7 would stop receiving extended community support from November 2021 but in light of the COVID-19 crisis, relief has been given to Drupal 7 users. After being in service for over a decade, Drupal 7 will no longer be supported by the Drupal Association starting from November 29, 2022. Besides the loss of D7 official support, there will be less focus on the contributed modules of the Drupal 7 version.
Drupal 7 to Drupal 8 Migration
Drupal 8 was introduced in the market in 2015 and it came with a slew of significant changes. The best part of D7 to D8 migration is that the things you used to do through contributed modules in D7 are now packed in the D8 core version. However, the way of implementation might not be similar in Drupal 8 and some refactoring could also be required to access feature parity. Furthermore, the Drupal 7 to Drupal 8 migration process could be a tough row to hoe, and moving the content is another daunting task. Therefore, it is recommended to seek help from a professional Drupal development company.
Drupal 8 to Drupal 9 Migration
Unlike Drupal 7 to Drupal 8 migration, wherein, a massive re-platforming effort is required, D8 to D9 migration is the simple incremental upgrade. Those who have already embraced the Drupal 8 version could be benefitted. In other words, D9 is built on D8 using optional updated dependencies and deprecations and migration from Drupal 8 is simply a minor iteration change from the final D8 version.
Wrapping Up
If you use the Drupal content management system but are on the previous versions, it’s time to switch to the new version with the help of a Drupal website development company. Drupal is a popular content management system that has established a strong position in the market by evolving incessantly and recently it celebrated its 20th birthday. This open-source CMS is trusted by the world’s leading brands including Tesla Motors, Timex, McDonald’s Australia, Nokia, and more.
