drupal 6 end of life announcement
TRANSCRIPT
DRUPAL 6 END OF LIFE ANNOUNCEMENT, SHOULD I UPGRADE MY DRUPAL WEBSITE?
With the official release of Drupal 8 on Nov 19th 2015 coinciding with the birthday of Drupal founder Dries Buytaert, sparkling celebrations across the globe amongst the Drupal community, comes an alarming Drupal 6 End of Life announcement. Now let’s explore the options with Drupal 6 & Drupal 7 website owners who are in a need to embrace the imminent change.February 24th 2016 – Time left to act (Official Drupal 6 End of Life)The end of life announcement means that Drupal community will no longer release any official updates for Drupal 6
No security updates ( Websites can be compromised and becomes vulnerable to hackers) It will no longer be supported by the community at large (With New version in town the
fervour towards contribution will be shifted to Drupal 8) Might have to rely on paid vendors for keeping the website safe & secure
What does Drupal 8 offer?Drupal 8 with its powerful new suite of tools is focussed on overcoming the inherent complexity of the previous versions, to enable website administrators to work through hassle-free without complex configurations.
Improved content editing/authoring experience (Now your site’s content could be managed from your phone)
Mobile-first, responsive, HTML5 output (Enhanced User Experience on both desktop & mobile devices, Drupal 8 has mobile responsiveness in its DNA)
Ease of multilingual configuration (Easily translate to your website’s content to 110 supported languages)
Improved performance (Less modules for faster page loads and reduced server load )Although, it promises a lot of cool features, apart from major modules, there are a whole lot of contributed modules that still needs to be developed for Drupal 8.
Should Drupal 7 owners worry?Drupal 7 could be around for another 4 years as per the Official Drupal release cycle,
Source: https://www.drupal.org/core/release-cycle-overview I have a Drupal 6 website what should I do?Well! How long you can stay with Drupal 6 beyond its EOL is a question of what your website is? If it’s a simple brochure website with few pages of content manifesting your businesses’ online presence, you do not have to worry about upgrading to Drupal 8. It could be a smoother ride or a little bumpy one without pinching your budget. If your website is made up of heavily customized modules, say an e-commerce website with lot of functionality achieved with contributed modules and customizations, you will need a careful assessment by a developer to check if you have relevant modules available on Drupal 8. The next planned minor upgrade is planned to happen by April or May, 2016
It is also a trade-off between how interested you are in being an early-adopter vs. the budget availability for the upcoming financial year. RecommendationWell! Knowingly or unknowingly new Drupal release has happened in a vacation season, so businesses’ has ample time to sit back relax on your vacation and ruminate over your options to decide upon giving a fresh look to your business with Drupal 7 or Drupal 8. While deciding to go with Drupal 8, do not hesitate to reach the Drupal geeks who have already started delivering on Drupal 8 and has a readily available professional team. For a thorough assessment and professional guidance on upgrading your Drupal website, Drupal Geeks can be reached out @ 312-340-7112 or send an email to [email protected]