At Phase2, we help organizations assess the suitability of Drupal 8 in the context of their unique digital strategies. We’ve implemented enterprise platforms on early versions of Drupal 6, 7, and 8, refining our insight into the risks and rewards of early adoption.
The following is excerpted from our white paper, “Drupal 8 for Enterprise: Drupal 8 in a Changing Digital Landscape.” Download the full white paper from here.
The Strategic Value of Drupal 8
Drupal has consistently evolved over the past 2 major releases to more directly address enterprise use cases. The major initiatives of Drupal 8 - configuration management, authoring experience, multi-lingual capabilities, and built in API services - improve Drupal’s ability to support major multi-site platforms. What’s more, major changes in Drupal’s architecture make it better suited to handle the omni-channel requirements demanded in today’s digital ecosystem.
The overall result is a more powerful platform for designers and developers, better processes and greater stability for site builders, and better tools and user experience for your audience.
Drupal 8 Gotchas to Watch Out For
Nevertheless, it would be disingenuous to claim that any new technology is completely risk-free - but there are proven strategies for mitigating these risks. Forging a relationship with a capable technology partner is an excellent way to ensure you are able to surmount any challenges in achieving your digital strategy initiatives.
Here are some potential risks to watch out for, as well as proven and effective strategies to mitigate them.
Account for the Learning Curve in your Timeline
Be aware of the steep learning curve for first-time Drupal 8 projects. Object-oriented programming does result in long-term developer agility, but could take some investment in skills at the onset. Drupal 8 does a number of things differently than previous versions of Drupal, as it has integrated practices and approaches from the broader PHP community. Developers, designers, site builders, and project managers must adjust their practices while they are incorporating this new platform into their repertoire. Account for this learning delay in your timeline, trusting that development will accelerate once the learning period has passed.