Migrating From Magento 1 to Magento 2
Magento 2 has been released and brings a host of improvements starting with technical and performance improvements in the current release. Recent releases include functionality for B2B, improved staging, new search, multi-warehouse support, enhanced CMS, and more. The initial Magento 2 release focused on the technical side and presents great improvements in code framework approach and general performance enhancements. Scalability is significantly improved with a more consistent caching methodology and the ability to split data operations across multiple databases. Subsequent releases have introduced many feature enhancements as well.
Overall Magento 2 has been in active use for years now and with consistent effort by platform and extension vendors to bring improvements to all aspects of the initial offering. At this point in time Magento 2 may easily be considered a solid and viable platform, one well prepared to meet the needs of a wide variety of merchants.
When to Consider Migration
The Magento 2 platform presents clear technical and business reasons to migrate, so the next question is when the transition should take place. Aside from the overarching concern of internal budget and timeline there are three significant considerations to take into account; length of support for Magento 1, number of extensions currently engaged on the site and level of compatibility to Magento 2, and expected duration of the implementation project.Magento 1 End of Life is now eminent, with a final extended date of June 2020. What this means for merchants is that after June of 2020 Magento will not be releasing any additional updates to the Magento 1 platform. While the loss of functionality and performance updates is important far more critical is the lack of security updates. Given the ever increasing number of malicious site attacks an inability to update site security creates a potentially disastrous vulnerability for merchant sites.New third party extension updates for Magento 2 are being released daily – and by now most Magento 1 extensions have viable counterparts for Magento 2. When considering transition it is a good idea to check with the third party vendor to see if extensions being used are available for Magento 2 and if not if there is a suitable alternative available.When considering timing for migration it is important to allow sufficient time for the project to take place; this may be as short as a handful of months for a small and simple site to well over a year for large and complex installations. Providing the implementation team with sufficient details on scope early on will assist greatly in obtaining accurate estimates of expected project duration.
What to Consider for Migration
If the site depends on third party extensions it will be important to review each extension for compatibility with Magento 2. Extensions which have not been upgraded to support Magento 2 will either need to be replaced or customized during transition implementation for Magento 2 support. Extension review should occur early in any project with alternatives explored and detailed for any extension not passing muster. Dependency on a large number of extensions can serve to increase project complexity; dependency on extensions that are not upgraded to support Magento 2 will significantly increase transition complexity and costs. Fortunately most extensions have been updated by this time and that will serve to limit risks and costs during this step.Customizations are always a concern when implementing a new project with any existing site and in the case of Magento 2, where significant core code changes indicate alteration in coding best practices, understanding the scope of changes to customizations is of paramount importance. It is highly likely that any existing Magento 1 customization will need to be refactored in order to integrate with Magento 2 best practice approach.Working with the implementation team early in the project to explore business practice and use cases around reasons for third party extensions and customizations will help in not only cementing an understanding of implementation needs but can also serve to identify areas where simplification of the implantation might occur. This can serve not only to reduce project costs but may also present long term process and/or performance improvement. Often an existing Magento implementation suffers from compounded exception logic implemented to support company growth accrued over time. Review of business practices may discover methods to simplify and reduce exceptions to be carried over into the new site. At the least such review will serve to better guide the implementation team in accommodating business practice and use case needs.Magento has provided a viable window of opportunity for migration to take place and now the clock is running out. Keys to success when implementing this transition is understanding business needs, knowing why each feature needs to exist on the site, partnering with a knowledgeable implementation team, and finally – don’t keep putting it off.