This is the end of Umbraco version 7

Umbraco is an open-sourced and THE user-friendly Content Management System (CMS) used to build and create immersive digital experiences for your business and customers. 

What does EOL mean? 

End-of-life describes a product that is no longer maintained or supported by the creator. If you are using the soon-to-be outdated version, you will be at risk of security breaches and other threats, which we will go into greater depth about further on. That being said, end-of-life does not mean the end of service. However, it is heavily discouraged by Umbraco and us here at Clerks well to use version 7 as unsupported software can be dangerous and, in some cases, irreversibly damaging to the integrity of your business. If the creators themselves wouldn’t use it, why would you? 

The dangers of being unsupported 

There is a range of reasons that your website may be vulnerable, some of which are harder to avoid than others. However, running your website on outdated software is a significant contributor. Outdated software is outta here software!  

So, some of the key risks of unsupported software are as follows: 

Behind the times:

• Would you run your business on a machine from 2013? No. So why should your software be any different? If you continue to use version 7 along with the other risks, you will find that your version will be significantly slower than newer versions. Each new release brings new significant improvements in reliability, usability, performance, and capabilities.  

Out-dated Features:

• Keeping your website site on unsupported software means you are stuck with outdated features, no new features, or new capabilities. This could mean great news for your competition if they can deliver in ways that you are now incapable of matching.  

Security Risks:

• The impending EOL will mean version 7 will no longer receive any support or security updates, patches, or fixes, etc. Leaving you vulnerable and able to be easily attacked by new cyber threats which could affect your compliancy requirements and privacy policy.  

Unsupported products no longer have developers working to discover new and inevitable vulnerabilities, so they remain unresolved, and no new fixes are created or deployed leaving you unprotected.   

As a digital agency, we are very aware of how much time, money, and resources corporations put into their digital presence, or more specifically, their website. 

As technology rapidly evolves, the rate at which people upgrade lags far behind. Reports of system vulnerabilities are on the rise, with an increase of 9.3% between 2020 and 2021.  It might shock you that over 30,000 websites are hacked every day, varying in severity. If you think upgrading is an expensive and time-consuming process, just imagine how much more costly it would be to recover and rebuild after a severe data breach. 

So where to go from here?

The choice is ultimately yours. Umbraco 8,9, 10 and now 11! Here’s a little bit more insight. 

Umbraco 8

• Launched in February 2019 it has deployed 18 minor releases and has reached its Long-Term Support phase until February 2024. It will continue receiving security updates until February 2025.  

Umbraco 9

• Launched in September 2021 it has deployed 5 minor releases following its initial launch, in this version Umbraco moved to ASP.NET and. Net5 from .Net. Providing more supported and stable cooperation with Microsoft technologies.  

Umbraco 10

• Launched in June 2022 with the framework updated to the .Net 6 for cross-platform and able to work across different operating systems. Umbraco 10 is the current major version, meaning you won’t have to upgrade for 24 months and are fully supported and secure in that time 

Umbraco 11

• Launched in December 2022 the latest release, using the latest .NET 7 and ASP.NET Core 7 framework. Umbraco 11 has Improved editing features with block grid editor, updated and decoupled dependencies and clean up and performance enhancements.  

Although Version 11 has just been released, the move from 10 to 11 will be a simpler upgrade therefore upgrading or re-building from version 7 to 10 would be the recommended approach. the upgrade to 11 will be similar from moving to a minor upgrade, for example 7.4 to 7.12. So, you can rest assured each upgrade, post upgrade! 

How can Clerkswell help you? 

We’ve already started migrating websites to make sure they don’t just have support; they have long-term support and an experienced hand to guide and assist in the transition that their sites need to go through.  

Our CEO Robert Killick likes to say, ‘Fail to prepare, prepare to fail’. We do encourage you to act now, as any upgrade can be time-consuming. The migration from 7 to 10 will be a big leap but you don’t have to do it alone.   

Clerkswell is an Umbraco Gold Partner with over 25 years of experience as a digital agency with the very best technology. 

So, together let’s get your upgrade underway and keep you and your business thriving on new initiative protected technologies and say goodbye to predated, outdated and unsecure software.

To kick start your upgrade on the way contact our Head of Digital, Nina Anderson today at N.Anderson@Clerkswell.com.

If you already have questions brewing, join us for our Webinar and Live Q&A on 14th March with our expert speakers Paul Seal Umbraco MVP & Zeb Sadiq our CTO. Click here to join.