Are you ready for Drupal 8?
Between the rush of product updates we're putting out lately, a moment of reflection...
Like many other Drupal shops and theme/product developers I've been taking it easy with major investment in D8. But times are changing. Now we are seeing a time where Google searches including Drupal 8 are more numerous than searches containing Drupal 7. This is by no means a guarantee that D8 is a clear winner but to me it is a sign of progress and it inspires enough confidence to push ahead with our Drupal 8 product upgrades. SooperThemes is on schedule to release our Drupal themes and modules on Drupal 8 soon and I'm sure it will be great for us and our customers.
2017 will be an interesting year for Drupal, a year in which Drupal 8 will really show whether it can be as popular as it's younger brother. The lines in the chart might be crossing but Drupal 8 has some way to go before it is as popular as 7. Understanding that Drupal 8 is more geared towards developers one might say it never will, but I think that it's important for the open web that Drupal will stay competitive in the low end market. Start-ups like Tesla and SpaceX have demonstrated how Drupal can grow along with your business all the way towards IPO and beyond.
Is your business ready for Drupal 8?
Personally I think I will need a month or 2 before I can say I'm totally comfortable with shifting focus of development to Drupal 8. Most of my existing customers are on Drupal 7 and my Drupal 7 expertise and products will not be irrelevant any time soon. One thing that is holding me back is uncertainty about media library features in Drupal 8, I hope the D8media team will be successful with their awesome work that puts this critical feature set in core.
If you are a Drupal developer, themer, or business owner, how do you feel about Drupal 8? Are you getting more business for Drupal 8 than Drupal 7? How is your experience with training yourself or your staff to work with Drupal 8 and it's more object oriented code?
Let me know in the comments if you have anything to share about what Drupal 8 means to you!