Posted by HIP on July 28, 2021 · Leave a Comment
Ecommerce platforms have had a proud history of evolution. With smarter technologies ruling the roost, businesses are fast embracing new changes to enhance customer experience.
Magento – one of the leading eCommerce platforms, is certainly no different. The developers followed the known suit leading to the unveiling of Magento 2.
But, hang on! Does a new release imply everyone’s happy onboard?
Well, yes, and no!
There are several eCommerce clients who are still running their online shops on the previous version and are yet to make the shift. Frankly, it’s quite a dilemma, as a lot of e-commerce businesses are still in the dark as to whether they should consider an upgrade, and with no holds barred for official Magento 1 support already done and over with in June, Magento 2 platform here seems to be in the spotlight.
Reportedly, in the second quarter of 2020, more than 30,000 online stores with no less than 27000 unique domain names saw themselves go live on Magento 2. The stats further depict:
- 5.29% of Magento 2 store users are Shopping and Ecommerce businesses, whereas Lifestyle brands take the lead by 9.34% and another 5.76% by Home and Garden brands.
- There are more than 75,000 websites in the US alone running on Magento and is said to be the highest in the world followed by the UK with more than 15,000 sites and Germany with more than 13000 sites.
- Magento is also downloaded almost close to 5,000 times each day, thus accounting for its popularity among e-retailers.
The official marketing lingo for Magento 2 goes– ‘brands, retailers, and businesses across B2C and B2B industries to quickly and cost-effectively deliver engaging omnichannel shopping experiences.”
Evidently, one of the plus points of the latest version Magento 2 is its flexible architecture and enhanced performance. Take the inclusion of touch-friendly features for instance– definitely, a rewarding move allowing eCommerce store owners to track and manage their businesses from underneath their palms, via a smartphone.
Nevertheless, the transition from Magento 1 to Magento 2 can appear a tad bit complex for most users. Sure, there are external tools to help you, but knowing things by yourself, and for the most part, why upgrading Magento 1 store is necessary, offers a clear perspective.
This post discusses a handful of compelling reasons Magento 2 migration that will not only do away with your confusion with Magento 2 but happily encourage you to upgrade this platform by hiring the best Magento developers.
Read on to find out more about the Magento migration process.
8 Reasons to Migrate Your Current Ecommerce Store to Magento 2
1. Embracing the Modern Technology Stack
With an open-source Magento 2 store, you get to witness an upgraded tech sack. For instance, PHP 5.5 is the version that receives the minimum support, whereas MySQL 5.6, HTML5, CSS3 are now what is being looked at as standard.
Plus, Magento 2 is built to easily facilitate optimal viewing as well as easy effortless interactions and improved performance across multiple device types– a much-needed feature that was missing in its earlier version.
The web API’s in Magento 2 also allow one to connect their eCommerce store with a bunch of advanced payment methods, merchandising solutions, and a host of marketing capabilities.
2. Enhanced Scalability and Performance
Undeniably, the built-in full page cache is the singular most significant feature of Magento 2, and it is this full page cache that offers support for varnish as the back end.
The upgraded Magento version now allows for faster load time for pages, like products and categories, and to be precise is measured to be less than 1.5 seconds for a better user experience.
On the compatibility front, Magento 2.0 supports Varnish 4 as well as HHVM 3.6 which in turn makes it possible to compile all PHP codes on the go.
Furthermore, Magento 2 is way faster in general than Magento 1 owing to a truckload of front-end doings that can be pre-compiled and worked AJAX. Now, you will be able to share databases by functional area, which means your product information can be stored on a different server altogether, and thus any information can be retrieved a lot faster for one and all users.
In essence, it has also contributed to a faster and seamless checkout process which invariably adds to the scalability of your eCommerce platform.
3. Faster Load Time For Pages
While Magento 1 required tons of JS to load in order to build a single eCommerce page, Magento 2 has significantly lowered the same to save time and load pages faster.
Enhanced Javascript management, especially the movement from using a prototype JS to JQuery has made things run a lot smoother. Last, the developers have also included JavaScript Bundling contributing to lower page load time.
4. Seamless Customisation
Magento 2 has a restricted code base that functions to direct everything under a specific module right under and within a single module. Plus, it employs the de facto PHP package manager and Composer to help manage the module installation process.
And that’s not all. The logic for business, as well as presentation, has also been worked on separately, thus making it possible to maintain all customization efforts, despite the product patches installed.
5. Smart Integration of Third Party Modules
All well-defined APIs have been published by Magento 2 marketplace to effortlessly act as an interface for all third-party modules. Doing so has also made it possible to keep external modules unaffected by any significant code changes and vice versa. In essence, the whole structure has contributed towards the enhancement and customization of the modules like never before.
6. A CodeBase That is Outright Modern and Clean
Magento 2 has successfully removed all bad and legacy codes. Thus, in Magento 2, there seems to be no easy way to leave any code that’s non-optimized in the right place for all Magento sites.
7. Easy Upgrade and Installation Process
One of the most compelling reasons for migrating from Magento 1 to 2 has to be its easy upgradability as well as installation process, especially for the patches.
As an eCommerce merchant, it greatly benefits one as they are now seamlessly upgrading their store to the best platform that’s available, only to enjoy all the latest functionalities and features under one umbrella.
With easy installation of security patches too, it has greatly contributed to the security of the site.
8. Minimised Effort For Testing
Magento 2 is a hallmark of come-of-age, automated test strategies. What it means is how developers now have the scope to write several test cases ensuring the customizations implemented have not played foul with any core functionalities.
Moreover, the Magento Test Framework also allows for functional testing, since it is an open-source cross-platform offering. In other words, it is not dependent on a single OS to run things and allows one to run quick functional tests using the native Magento application itself.
Furthermore, all functional tests can be performed at any point in time, either independently or with multiple tests at one go. Thus, it has brought the effects of user interaction testing to a bare minimum.
The Leap Ahead
Undeniably, the expansion of the eCommerce business and its constantly evolving nature has made Magento see some bad days in the recent past.
Notwithstanding the fact that Magento was once the top-seeded player out there for content management systems, the arrival of WooCommerce, SquareSpace, Shopify, and Wix have changed the game for good.
Nevertheless, Magento has been doing well and has always managed to keep the scorecard going with a pretty impressive list of users signing up. Sure, the figures can change for some years, but that certainly has nothing to do with the credibility of a platform like Magento. With its newest upgrade, things are looking very promising and it won’t be a surprise if you see a large number of users making a comeback with Magento 2.
Following Adobe’s acquisition in 2018, Magento as an innovation company has constantly made an effort to revive its lost glory by enhancing the core features, upping the security, and engaging eCommerce retailers globally through conventions and gala events. With Magento 2 in the picture, perhaps the company is due for a glory tale in times to come.
As an eCommerce business owner running your store on Magento 1, no time can be better than right now to consider an upgrade. Now that you’ve got a comprehensive idea about what you can expect from Magento 2, you can plan accordingly to implement new features and probability shape up your business plan as well.
However, while considering upgrading to Magento 2, it is recommended in the best interest that you always get it done from a certified Magento Solution Partner, or from a Magento Certified Developer to avoid any hassles. With trained hands by your side, the intricate doings and other inherent capacities can be handled easily and you won’t have to lose your sleep over it.
Posted by HIP on May 14, 2018 · Leave a Comment
PHP is one of the most widely-used and regularly updated scripting languages for web development. However, while other scripting languages can have limited performance and scalability, many businesses struggle to migrate their websites from other languages to the latest version of PHP.
But other languages cause technical vulnerabilities especially when developing custom authentication or separating client and server-side codes.
And with PHP being used in 77% of all websites, more companies are hiring professional PHP developers to migrate the other websites to PHP. Developers can handle the complex and extensive migration process and also build a strategy for support and infrastructure, making the migration go smoothly.
But before migrating to PHP, you need to be aware of the requirements and benefits of upgrading your website.
What You Should Know Before Migrating To PHP?
- Many enterprise businesses have looked for the best web development platform to guarantee functionality. PHP Web development is the best-suited option for designing and developing an impulsive web solution. There are a number of reasons why PHP is the perfect fit for you?
- But the cost of not migrating can be even higher. Other scripting languages and even older versions of PHP do not have adequate support access. This means your website can crash, break, or even lose valuable data. This makes migration inevitable if you want to keep your site up and running.
- However, not every application is ready to move to PHP. While you can identify your migration needs, some web servers have specific requirements that only professionals can handle. For an error-free PHP shift, we recommend you work with a developer to prepare and execute the migration strategy.
What Are The Advantages of Migrating To PHP?
While improved support and performance are obvious PHP migration benefits, there is more to the upgrade. Depending on the type of applications and extent of migration, moving to the latest PHP version gives you the following advantages:
1. Frameworks
Frameworks make web development easier through prebuilt applications for commonly used web functions. PHP has well-performing, stable frameworks that can handle complex applications. This helps developers migrate faster by cutting down the coding.
2. Security
Supported PHP versions get regular security updates and data protection. This includes safeguarding the data against leaks, memory corruptions, malware, ransomware, and server problems. Such breaches can be prevented by upgrading to a supported language such as PHP Version 7 or 8. The security patches available through PHP support makes the website more secure and less vulnerable to data loss.
However, your data isn’t completely safe if you don’t address security issues on your end. A developer can help you identify all vulnerabilities and patch them up along with the migration to ensure your website is completely secure.
3. Speed
According to Google, users leave a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Websites on PHP load quickly and smoothly, making a better user experience. The latest PHP updates also focus on improving the speed of the applications running through the language. But some applications also require infrastructure updates to run at optimal speed. If your website is still slow, consider professional help to support the migration with the right infrastructure.
4. Compliance
Due to security issues, compliance standards such as data encryption and authentication are made more stringent. Unfortunately, all scripting languages don’t meet these standards, especially when these issues arise from within the application. Migrating to one of the latest PHP versions can help solve compliance issues as they are solved in the PHP engine.
Many companies overlook compliance issues till the last moment. But these can cause serious data breaches and even result in server breakdown. To prevent any abrupt problems, consult a web developer beforehand to see if your current applications follow the required compliance standards.
5. Performance
PHP has a comparatively less number of server requests, reducing the cost and the power required to run the servers. It also processes a higher number of requests per second and has lower latency.
What Are The Requirements For PHP Migration?
PHP migration is not just about moving the website from one scripting language to another. It also requires proper support, administration, and infrastructure to function without issues. An experienced developer can create an efficient plan where these resources are adequately used to support the website during and after migration.
1. Administration
While PHP migration is handled by developers, they also need other human resources to handle the project requirements. But the decisions and migration plan are best left to developers, as they have the expertise required to identify and utilize the best course of action. Post-migration, proper training is required to equip the staff with the necessary knowledge and skills to use the newly upgraded website.
2. Support
PHP migration requires support to debug and ensure that the application runs smoothly. But PHP also gets adequate community support. It gets regular updates, security patches, and compliance checks which makes sure that the applications using PHP run without bugs. Additionally, a developer team within your company can handle other support requests that arise from your end.
3. Infrastructure
A PHP migration works best when accompanied by infrastructure changes. You also need to upgrade your operating system, web servers, and sometimes the entire database as you move to PHP. This is to accommodate the new libraries and extensions that are a prerequisite for the functioning of a PHP website.
4. Testing
Even though all other resources are prepared for PHP migration, the application cannot be upgraded if it has no test coverage. PHP migration becomes more feasible if applications have good test support and aren’t using legacy applications. Ensure that all your applications are thoroughly tested, so the migration to PHP doesn’t decrease their performance.
What are the Reasons to migrate your Website to PHP?
Many companies that attempt PHP migrations fail to recognize the exact reasons the website needs an upgrade. But these reasons are crucial as the migration strategy is framed around them. If you want to migrate to PHP but aren’t sure of the reasons or strategies, it is best to hire a professional PHP web developer. Meanwhile, you can develop a basic understanding of common reasons why companies choose to migrate to PHP.
1. Better Features
PHP has several features which make web development easier and faster. With each new version, PHP gets better features, mainly focusing on eliminating the bugs of the previous version. For example, PHP Version 7 has preloading, anonymous classes, weak references, typed properties, multi-catch extension handling, and many other features to help websites function better.
By hiring a web developer, you can use these features best through PHP migration. The newer features reduce development time and increase processing speed. Through this, developers can reduce the overall time taken for migration and provide better testing and debugging support.
2. Security Patches
Despite adding multiple security features through plugins, your website is still vulnerable to data loss. While security breaches can occur due to external reasons, some breaches are caused by the failure of internal codes. In addition, websites that use outdated scripting languages are more prone to data loss due to internal failures such as server breakdown or backup failure.
One of the reasons why PHP migrations are preferred is the regular security updates that make the website less vulnerable to breaches. The developers continue fixing any coding issues as they discover new vulnerabilities in the PHP engine.
Connecting to databases is also safer with PHP. Developers have the flexibility to choose the best database for your website without compromising on its security. For additional safety, it is best to ask your developer to maintain a backup complete with server settings so that any data loss can be easily recovered.
3. Host Compatibility
As upgraded PHP versions are released, several web hosts have set their requirements to only support the latest versions of PHP. While websites written using outdated versions won’t be removed with immediate effect, you will need to migrate to continue using the hosting provider and avoid downtime.
Most web hosts avoid switching to a different version by default. This is because not all websites are prepared to migrate to a new PHP version. By sudden shift, websites may lose data or experience downtime. To avoid any mishaps, consult a web developer and migrate your website to PHP from your end.
4. LAMP Technology
The LAMP is nothing but a stack that includes Linux, Apache, and PHP. The developer can develop a website with particular operating systems, databases and deploy the application more efficiently. PHP is easy to customize.
5. Cost Saving
PHP migration is a cost-effective choice in the long run, PHP makes it easy to maintain the website as it doesn’t require extensive coding. It also has extensive community support making it easier to debug. Even popular PHP frameworks available for PHP are open source. This means they can be installed and used at no cost.
The latest PHP versions also have better processing speeds and lower latency. For example, the latency of PHP Version 7 is half that of its predecessor. This is crucial as processing time can add to the application running costs. Overall, migrating to PHP can be considered as a one-time investment that cuts down on maintenance and operating expenditures in the long run.
6. Availability of Frameworks Extensions And Libraries
Most PHP frameworks are not just available at zero cost but also have extensions that include pre-coded functions and libraries. Several applications can use the libraries and reduce the coding during migration.
In PHP web development you can reduce the amount of coding by using a number of frameworks and libraries. You can choose one of the best frameworks based on your business requirements such as Cake PHP, Laravel, and Symphony.
While many extensions are available, they are developed for general usage and are unsuitable for unique web page requirements. To address your web page needs, you will require a developer to write a new extension and then utilize it throughout your website. These extensions can be modified to serve specific functions and achieve better performance of your application.
Want to Migrate Your Website?
With most websites and hosts working with PHP which is why PHP migrations have become unavoidable. Migrating to PHP also improves performance, enhances security, and has better compliance. However, moving a webpage to PHP from a different scripting language has specific requirements. Therefore, the migration process in itself has several steps and needs careful planning.
To ensure that your website is migration-ready, consult a professional who is experienced in PHP migration. They can prepare your website for the upgrade, ensure the migration runs smoothly, and provide post-migration support. It is recommended to hire a web developer to make sure the migration is hassle-free and secure.
Once you decide on the migration of your web development projects, you can choose the PHP platform over others. You can face many difficulties while migrating your website and you need a professional to do this.
Hire Indian Programmers is the most reputed web development company that helps people to create a user-centric and most appealing website for their business.
Hire a PHP Developer from India for PHP website migration and discuss your requirements with our developers. Contact us now and take the right decision at the right moment to increase the performance of your website.
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