Time to act – D7 to D9

Tuesday 11 October 2022

There is just over one month left until GovCMS retires Drupal 7 (D7) from the SaaS platform. If you have not started the move to Drupal 9 (D9), you need to do so as soon as possible. GovCMS will no longer support the D7 distribution on the SaaS platform as of 28 November 2022.

Making the move from D7 to D9 requires a complete website rebuild. Below are a few tips to consider when transitioning your D7 website to D9.

  1. If you are unable to make the move from D7 to D9 by November 2022 you will be moved to a PaaS hosting and incur any additional PaaS costs. Find out what your budget is and what resources you may require. This will help you decide if moving to D7 by November 2022 is achievable.
  2. Lock in a date you want your new D9 website to go live. Ideally no later than mid-November.
  3. If you need a helping hand to move your D7 website to D9, GovCMS recently established the Whole of Government Drupal Services Panel. There are 17 suppliers on this panel who have the necessary skills and expertise to help you rebuild and move your D7 website to D9.
  4. Complete a stocktake of your current D7 website and find out what information will be transferred across, rewritten or removed on your D9 website. Review all the pages on your D7 website and find out which pages are current and need to be moved to your new D9 website.
  5. Make sure to check your new D9 website is mobile friendly, has all the necessary information and is WCAG compliant.

Following the end of November, all SaaS D7 websites will be moved to a PaaS hosting plan. Any associated PaaS hosting costs will be charged to your agency. Additionally, you will need to put more effort into maintaining your website, such as security patching and updates whereas on SaaS, GovCMS look after it for you. To maintain a PaaS website, it requires specialist skills. If you don’t maintain a PaaS website properly, you can jeopardise the stability and security of your website. However, if you make the move to D9 before November 2022 you will stay on the SaaS hosting platform, meaning GovCMS can continue security maintenance and updates for you.

If you have any further questions, or are looking for guidance on how to move your D7 website to D9, please reach out.