It’s the end of an era as we begin saying our goodbyes to Drupal 7. Last month, we received the official announcement that Drupal 7’s end of life would take place in November 2021. That seems like a long time from now, but it’ll be here sooner than you think. In fact, now is the time to start converting your Drupal 7 sites to Drupal 8 in preparation for the upcoming release of Drupal 9.
What does this mean for D7 users?
If you decide to stick with Drupal 7 after November 2021, there will be a paid program for extended support. Outside of the paid program, Drupal 7 users may experience some challenges including:
- The Drupal community will cease creating new projects, bug fixes, and documentation for Drupal 7.
- There will be no more Drupal 7 commits.
- The Drupal Security team will no longer offer support for Drupal 7 core or contributed modules or themes.
- Drupal 7 releases on project pages will be distinguished as “not supported,” though maintainers will have the ability to change that flag if needed.
- Drupal 7 may be flagged as “insecure” in 3rd party scans.
Preparing for Drupal 9
In a blog post published in September 2018, Dries detailed the end of Drupal 7 and Drupal 8. Both are scheduled to end in 2021, while the release of Drupal 9 is set for 2020. This will give users a year to update from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9, hence the urgency to make the switch to Drupal 8. Why is 2021 a special year of Drupal finales? Drupal 8 relies heavily on Symfony 3, which is also scheduled to expire during this year. Therefore, Drupal 9 will require the adoption of Symfony 4 or 5.
The transition from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9 should be a breeze, so long as you keep your Drupal 8 sites up to date. Sevaa Group offers maintenance for Drupal sites. This includes bug fixes, regular core, and security updates, as well as any sort of module maintenance. Jumping from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8 may take a bit of technical savvy, and we’ve been making upgrades since Drupal 4! We can help you migrate your site without compromising your content, load time, or security. Reach out to us about making the switch to Drupal 8; Acquia-certified developers are standing by.
