“Great things never came from comfort zones”
Yes, you might be content with what you have going on right now. Your Drupal 7 (or 6) website might be doing the job and running smoothly. But, have you considered taking a step ahead and race ahead of your competition? Have you thought about taking your website performance to another level? Have you considered providing your audience with a comprehensive out-of-the-world digital experience? If you have answered “No” to these questions, this article probably isn’t for you. But otherwise, read on to find out why migrating to Drupal 8 is one of the best business decisions you will ever make!
Drupal is best known for its scalability, robustness, flexibility and most of all – security. No wonder it has been chosen as a Content Management System for government organizations, financial institutions and other industries where data security and robustness is a prime priority. Without being updated with latest releases based on other technological factors and security features, Drupal would not be where it is today. Upgrading your Drupal website to the current latest version is not just reasonable, it is advisable.
- The Smart Move
Drupal 9 is coming. Isn’t it ideal to completely skip Drupal 8 and move to Drupal 9 instead? The answer is NO, it isn’t. Here’s why – Drupal 9 arrives in July 2020 and Drupal 7 (and Drupal 8) reaches the end of life in November 2021. Which means you have only 18 months to migrate your entire website to Drupal 9. Migrating a simple web-project is doable, but if it is a complex migration – the time is short. In such cases, the most ideal thing to do would be to migrate to Drupal 8 now and keep up with the updates. After Drupal adopted the continuous innovation model, minor updates are released every 6 months. This makes it very easy to upgrade to major versions as well. So updating from Drupal 8.9 (the last minor version) to Drupal 9 is easy as pie.
- New and Improved Features
Are you missing out on new features that can boost your revenue? Drupal 8 now comes packed with stunning features that will enhance your digital experiences. Features like WYSIWYG editor for rich content editing options, efficient SEO modules, multilingual support, drag and drop file uploads, built-in web-services, Twig template engine for a powerful and secure performance and so much more (!!) are now all in core. That means you won’t always need contributed modules unless your requirements call for it. Added to that, the list of contributed modules have increased by large numbers.
- Responsive by heart
Responsiveness is not just a nice-to-have feature now. It is a necessity. Drupal 8 is now responsive out-of-the-box. This means that not only will your website elements like themes, menus, images and blocks be mobile friendly to your viewers, but even your configuration setup is also responsive. Site administrators can manage their websites easily when on the move with mobile-friendly toolbars and other features.
- Top Performance
With technologies like BigPipe now in core, you don’t have to worry about your website’s performance. BigPipe module segregates your web page into different sections and renders the sections that get available first (cached). Drupal 8 also comes with many smart caching modules like the Internal page cache and Dynamic page cache for anonymous users. Decoupling your Drupal website with a front-end framework like React or Angular will boost your site performance and interactivity. Drupal 8 also comes with a plethora of SEO modules that can elevate your websites’ presence.
- But first, API-First
In today’s age, if you’re not future-proofing yourself, you are asking for trouble. Your website and content now need to be made available to various devices from different touchpoints. To be able to do this correctly, your content needs to be treated as structured data; as data that can be read and understood by any device/medium. Drupal 8 follows the API-first architecture where you can create an API before you build your website. This ensures your content turns into services that can interact with diverse devices. Creating your own web-service using Drupal 8 modules and customizing it is now easier.
- High Security
Migrating to Drupal 8 will ensure your website is up-to-date with all the security patches and improvements that are compatible with your website. Drupal 8’s new templating engine – Twig – replaces the PHP template engine in Drupal 7. Not only is it easier to work with, but it is also more secure. With a clear separation of logic and presentation layers, it offers more security while creating templates.
- Power of HTML 5
By now we are all aware of the power of HTML’s big brother – HTML 5. Drupal 8 comes equipped with HTML 5, the latest and most powerful version of HTML. Complex semantic elements such as audio, video, email and date can be easily embedded. What’s better? It speeds up the website performance, is accessible, great for search engine optimization and works excellent irrespective of the device!
Conclusion
When you want to offer your audience exceptionally high digital experiences across all platforms, it is a good idea to keep your Drupal website updated to match the latest technology needs. Migrating to Drupal 8 will help give you that edge over your competition and NOW is the best time to do it. It comes packed with powerful modules off-the-rack while contributed modules from Drupal 7 have now been upgraded in Drupal 8. Websites built on Drupal 8 are responsive and looks great on any device.
Plenty of features that can enhance and boost website performance are now available. Websites can now be built on the API-first architecture – thus future-proofing your goals. Security has been beefed up with various module enhancements and additions. Content editing and authoring experience have never been easier and more effective with Drupal 8. Change can be hard, but change is what allows us to grow and progress. Sign up with aisite service and migrate to Drupal 8 now to experience the difference.
