Migrating From Drupal 7 to Drupal 9? Acquia Has Your Back
Note: Drupal 9 (D9) reached its end of life on November 1, 2023, so it is no longer maintained. That means D9 doesn't receive security patches to protect it against new cyber threats or attacks.
Acquia does not recommend migrating to D9. While Drupal 7 (D7) users can still migrate to D9, they will then need to upgrade to Drupal 10 (D10) to avoid potential security threats. We recommend migrating directly to D10 from D7.
Use the article below to better understand Acquia Migrate Accelerate and D9 Flight Path Assessments, both of which are open source tools to assist with a D7 to D9 migration.
A moment of silence for Drupal 8, which sunsetted in November 2021 but not before leaving us with a gift: Unlike all previous versions of Drupal, it ensured new features will be released twice a year. That means new Drupal releases will mainly be about retiring deprecated code. No more waiting for the next big Drupal release before accessing new features . . . unless you’re one of those organizations still working off of D7.
Never fear — Acquia, which was co-founded by Drupal creator Dries Buytaert, has created open source tools to help users still on D7 upgrade to Drupal 9 (D9). As the world’s leading contributor to Drupal, we’ve fully supported D9 since its inception and have contributed to its ongoing development. In fact, we have an entire team that supports the building of new Drupal versions, including the upcoming Drupal 11.
So, if you’re still on D7 and ready to take the next step, you and your team can ease the process with a D9 Flight Path assessment and Acquia Migrate Accelerate (AMA), the first and only tool purpose-built for accelerating Drupal 7 to Drupal 9 migrations. Best yet, both tools are free, and are open source so anyone can take advantage of the benefits they offer for D7 to D9 migrations.
Flight Path: Mapping your migration journey
In the past, a Drupal migration was a significant undertaking that spanned months. Teams needed to audit their sites, remove outdated content and code, import new data, upgrade all system requirements, and port over custom modules and themes.
But, together with Acquia Migrate Accelerate (more on that in a minute), a D9 Flight Path assessment helps organizations with the planning and analysis required ahead of a migration. The tool eliminates the spreadsheets and hours of work needed to audit the content and modules of your D7 site. In addition, Flight Path maps the known content and module migration pathways that businesses can use in AMA to port over to their D9 sites.
If your organization lacks an existing migration route, Flight Path helps you determine what actually needs to be moved over and how much time that’ll take. By automating those tasks and more, Flight Path can help you quickly and easily discover insights into your D7 application.
Acquia Migrate Accelerate: Spend less time planning and more time innovating
Like Flight Path, Acquia Migrate Accelerate dramatically reduces the time, effort, and expense needed to complete each step of the migration process. Through a combination of automated migration tools, pre-configured D9 application, and the support of an optimal Drupal environment, AMA helps organizations migrate D7 applications to D9 up to 80% faster than if they took on the migration alone.
AMA can also help expedite migrations with its Module Recommendation Engine, which will automatically recommend modules and patches needed to move code over from your old D7 site to your new D9 site and smooth out migration paths. Site builders can use the Migration Dashboard to track errors or code issues throughout the entire process and empower team members to preview their migration efforts before importing content.
In addition, AMA includes an Advanced Migration UI on top of Drupal's powerful Migrate API to lower the barrier of entry for enacting content migrations. Instead of manually writing custom code to migrate from D7 to D9, you can use this tool to automate the process. That’s because we recognized that the release of D8 and D9 represented a significant evolution in the Drupal community: Both made Drupal more accessible to beginners and non-developers who want greater autonomy in how they create digital experiences.
The Advanced Migration UI web interface allows those groups to work independently; no dev resources are needed during the initial steps of migration. For developer teams, the Advanced Migration UI web interface means they don’t have to spend as much time on preparation and maintenance. Instead, they can immediately dive into the migration
Once your migration to Drupal 9 is complete, Acquia Cloud Platform can support your new application out of the box. Our Drupal experts have made sure to continuously enhance the platform to keep up with all new Drupal versions so that you can have the best hosting experience possible.
Offering support today and into the future
No matter where you are in your Drupal migration process, Acquia can support you now and into the future. Our steadfast commitment to the Drupal community has never wavered; as the number one contributor to the Drupal Project year over year, we continue to invest in Drupal’s development. Looking ahead to Drupal 11, we continue to build our platform with Drupal best practices in mind, and our support team can assist with any Drupal application, as well as troubleshoot issues as they arise.
To receive a free D9 Flight Path assessment, you can request a report here or, if you’re an existing Acquia customer, you can work with your account manager to determine next steps. In either case, you’ll be put in touch with an Acquia solutions engineer who will need access to your site. Once that access has been granted, the solution engineer can plug your site into the tool and share a report within minutes.
All Acquia Cloud Enterprise customers can also access Acquia Migrate Accelerate for free. Learn more about AMA and how you can speed up your migration here.
Senior Product Marketing Manager Marketing Acquia
