Upgrading to latest Drupal
Case Study: EDF Energy
From older Drupal versions
An opportunity
You’re acutely aware that you’re on an older (legacy?!) version of Drupal, and have stayed for important reasons. The options haven't been attractive, but now you're having a harder look.
The upgrade process, as you likely already know, is a full rebuild - much the same as any other new Drupal site build, with a content & data migration if desired.
A rebuild is great opportunity to: (with budgetary approval!)
- refresh the site design UX and Design for Drupal
- review which functionality is actually used
- review all your site content, content, revisions and products
We recognise that the primary blockers for this upgrade process are either budget constraints, or the size and risk of rebuilding a longstanding and complex site. As mentioned in the EDF Energy Case Study, we can help you with:
- assessing which functionality is worth rebuilding, based on balanced, pragmatic reviews of the complexity involved and the importance to your customer journey
- redesigning site architecture for improved performance, faster build time or reduced complexity, where possible
From Drupal 6
Upgrading from Drupal 6 to the latest Drupal is absolutely possible - it is still specifically supported (see here).
A D6 site by this time likely has a lot of custom functionality and tweaks. We’ll work with you to peel back the layers and ensure we get all the most important functionality and tweaks into your new site.
From Drupal 7
If you’re still on Drupal 7, you’ve held out for quite some time! Whilst there are options for security support beyond End Of Life in Q1 2025, few are intending to continue much beyond a couple of years.
It really is time to look seriously through your upgrade options.
We have helped many clients upgrade from Drupal 7 to latest Drupal (9 or 10), and would be happy to chat through the process with you. Below we have an outline of the key tasks in a D7-10 migration.
Migrating older sites to Drupal 10 involves:
- Building an understanding of your existing site(s), data, functionality and infrastructure
- Designing the new Drupal 10 site, theme, functionality and content plan
- Developing an overall project plan and an estimate
- Constructing the new D10 site
- Composing and running a data migration between the old and new sites
We have the experience you need to succeed
Over the years we have taken some of our clients through from Drupal 4 to current latest Drupal, stopping at each version along the way. So we can really do migrations!
Having taken many of our clients through the 7-10 upgrade recently, we are well familiarised with the Migrate API and the many supporting modules and tools.
Still unsure?
See our comprehensive review of the major reasons people hold back on their Drupal upgrades, and the business benefits that can result from following through sooner rather than later.
From modern Drupal (8 or 9)
If you’ve gotten stuck on Drupal 8 or 9, CM can absolutely help. We’ve been through a large number of Drupal 10 upgrades over the last few years, and that experience is fresh and ready to get you moving.
Upgrading to current Drupal generally takes hours to days, and depends on your specific collection of installed custom and contrib modules. The more you have, and the older things are, the more complex your estimate will be. But CM love a challenge, and we will be able to get you seamlessly upgraded.
Updating Drupal 8 & 9 to current Drupal involves:
- Building an understanding of your existing site(s), data and functionality
- Reviewing all the installed contrib and custom modules
- Adapting custom code to meet current code standards
- Untangling the dependency web in order to update all contrib modules and run the database updates
- Thorough post-upgrade testing
We have the experience you need to succeed
With almost all clients now on modern Drupal, we have worked through plenty of upgrades from 8-9, 9-10 and onward. Each has different interesting facets; most notably, the earlier 8-9 upgrades are more involved due to the higher volume of change in the ecosystem at that point.
Don't want to upgrade?
We know that as a Director, CTO or CMO it's crucial to be well-informed.
Our honest advice is designed to challenge thinking and questions assumptions, not just reel off marketing fluff.
If you're considering leaving the Drupal platform rather than upgrading, this is our recommended reading.