Why You Need To Upgrade To Drupal 9

Why You Need to Upgrade to Drupal 9
This is your reminder that your website has stayed on the Drupal 7 & 8 platforms for too
long now. While these versions of Drupal have been reliable, Drupal 7 is already more than 10
years old. An upgrade is necessary even more so with the End-of-life for Drupal 7 and 8 looming
over. Once these versions reach their EOL, there will be no more critical updates, bug fixes or free
support offered for these versions, which means you will have no accessibility to necessary quality
of life upgrades and bug fixes in case something goes wrong.
A new Sheriff in town

Drupal 9 was launched back in June of 2020 with much fanfare and although users of
previous versions were not fast pressed for an upgrade, it is now a necessity as development will be
frozen once the EOL deadline is reached for the past versions. Drupal 9 has taken care of some of
the key issues that developers and enterprises have faced with the past versions and its added
functionalities and capabilities are a blessing for web developers with its optimization options.
Running EOL platforms can prove to be detrimental to your business and will cost you time,
money and reduced user engagement. It is thus more efficient for businesses running Drupal 7 & 8
to migrate to the newer platform instead of struggling with bugs and lapsed security updates and
out-of-date modules.
Key Drupal 9 Features

Upgrading to Drupal 9 has also been made easy with a greater focus on compatibility to
ensure that future upgrades are easier. A new version brings new features with continuous
development and innovation to ensure a sturdy content management system. The new features and
capabilities of Drupal 9 are designed to give the user the ability to freely curate their content and
keep their web applications up-to-date. We will now discuss some of the key new features on offer
by Drupal 9.
 Drupal 9 offers backward compatibility allowing you to port your modules, configurations
and data from Drupal 8 for a smooth transition. Drupal 9 does all this without affecting your
system performance. The focus for Drupal 9 was to break the code not the data which has
significantly reduced clutter and kept your system fast, secure and up-to-date.
 Drupal 9 offers biannual updates with an increased focus on faster and better performance
for websites even on mobile devices. This performance optimization is possible because of
integration of features like BigPipe which allows for faster loading of the initial page,
Content Workflow which enable you to manage and define multiple workflows, as well
support for multiple languages and allows you to structure your content.
 The code is cleaner as there is no support for deprecated codes from Drupal 8. By getting rid
of deprecated code, the modules become uncluttered and much faster. The end result being
that the code is much more flexible and significantly increases website performance.
 Drupal 9 will see the shift from Symfony 3 to Symfony 4 along with upgrades to Twig 2.0
that will enhance performance, data security and improve developer experience.
Furthermore, the panelizer will be replaced with the Layout Builder, the best module
available to developers.
 Drupal 9 extensively utilises Headless CMS to improve user engagement through a
powerful Javascript framework to create an optimized front-end for websites. Headless CMS
also offers features like, API- First Approach, Create Once, Publish Anywhere etc.
Why must you upgrade to Drupal 9?

The biggest reason for upgrading to Drupal 9 is the EOL of Drupal 7 and 8. For existing
Drupal 7 users, the biggest challenge of switching to Drupal 8 was the backward compatibility issue
whereas for Drupal 8 users, the upgrade might seem unnecessary. Although Drupal 9 is similar to
Drupal 8 in some ways or other, and it may seem logical to switch to Drupal 8 instead of going for
Drupal 9, in the longer run your business will stand to lose more money and time.
Drupal 7 and 8 will lose developer support after their EOL making them vulnerable to cyber
attacks as security vulnerabilities will no longer be patched. No development will be allowed for
these platforms and therefore unresolved bugs will be locked with no room for future resolution.
Lack of patches, developer support as well critical updates will make it very costly to run websites
running on these platforms as in case anything goes wrong, there will be steep costs to fix them, if
not a forced migration to the newer platform.
Lack of developer support will also lead to difficulties in third party integrations as well as
web hosting as any hosting server will flag your website as unsafe to users who will then look for
alternatives and you will loose users and potential clients just because of an out-of-date platform.
The modern user is hyper aware about his/her data security and a website that does not offer data
security or is vulnerable to cyber attacks is a big red flag for existing as well as potential clients and
users.
Although you website will be continue to function without developer support, you will not
be able to add features and modules or provide quality of life updates as the platform itself will be
frozen with no updates, security patches or bug fixes. In the absence of critical updates, you stand
the risk of losing all your data to bugs or cyber attacks, which will cost you significant money and
damage your reputation.
On the other hand, Drupal 9 has just started its life as a CMS platform and thus offers
regular updates, security patches, new modules, easy third party integration and web hosting
services. With improved user engagement courtesy of a powerful front-end for faster website
performance with optimized webpages for different platforms ranging from PCs to mobile devices,
Drupal 9 is all ready to take your website performance and user engagement to the next level.
Staying up-to-date will keep you in the developer ecosystem, making your system secure and
reliable.
Another option that may come to your mind is switching to different platform but that will
lead to increased costs in the form of re-training your team in the new platform and its technologies.
The cost is money and a significant amount of time which could have been utilised in the managing
and digital transformation of your existing website and enhancing available features. It is thus
critical for your business to switch to Drupal 9 and ensure continued support from the developers
and community with new modules and features being introduced everyday.
Another plus point is that the future versions of Drupal like, Drupal 9 will be backward
compatible making it far easier to switch to newer platforms without worrying about loss of data
and modules from your existing website.
Bibliography
 https://www.zyxware.com/articles/6000/how-can-you-estimate-the-complexity-of-a-drupal-
7-to-drupal-9-migration
 https://www.zyxware.com/articles/6001/still-wondering-whether-to-migrate-to-drupal-9
 https://www.zyxware.com/articles/5999/extending-the-drupal-7-end-of-life-and-what-
drupal-7-and-8-site-owners-need-to-know
 https://www.agileana.com/blog/drupal-8-end-of-life-what-happens-next/
 https://www.tag1consulting.com/blog/drupal-7-and-drupal-8-end-life
 https://www.drupal.org/psa-2021-2021-06-29
 https://blog.acromedia.com/drupal-8-to-drupal-9-upgrade-easiest-update-in-a-decade
 https://www.srijan.net/resources/blog/whats-new-in-drupal-9-and-why-do-you-need-to-
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Why You Need to Upgrade to Drupal 9

A new Sheriff in town

Key Drupal 9 Features

Why must you upgrade to Drupal 9?

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