3 Key Points to Consider when Migrating from Other CMS to Drupal 11

Why Should You Migrate to Drupal 11 from Other CMS?

Advanced security, multilingual features, mobile-readiness, ease of content management, high level of performance, and more — the list of Drupal 11 advantages over other CMSs is endless. You’ll find a reason to move from another content management system to Drupal. Let’s look at the benefits of Drupal 11 in more detail.

Drupal is the most secure CMS

Drupal can boast a high level of security out of the box which can be extended even further via special security configurations and modules. Drupal is a trusted content management system worldwide and is a choice for global enterprises, governmental institutions, educational websites, and more. The powerful Drupal community constantly contributes to security enhancement by determining vulnerabilities in code and fixing them immediately. Thus, implementing regular security updates released on drupal.org is crucial for a flawless and safe website operation.

Discover how to improve Drupal 10 website security in our recent blog post.

Drupal is responsive

Nowadays, users surf the net using their phones. To be successful and provide a positive user experience, a website should look and function well on all screen sizes across multiple devices. Luckily, Drupal is a mobile-oriented CMS and it is responsive out of the box which means that your site will be mobile-optimized. However, responsiveness can be improved even further to ensure flawless operations on mobiles.

Drupal is flexible for user roles and permissions

Drupal permissions are flexible. This CMS allows you to set an unlimited number of roles on the website, each with a unique set of permissions. Thus, a website administrator gains manageable control over user access with the possibility to determine who can see and modify a site’s content.

3 Points to Consider During Migration from Other CMS to Drupal

Below, we outline the crucial points to consider before and during the migration from any content management system to Drupal 11. Although these points are not step-by-step guidelines, they are still the basics to rely on.

1. Create a backup of your existing website.

Backups are crucial before any interruption in the website operation, especially before such complex processes as migration or upgrade. Irrevocable data loss is something you don’t want to experience. A website & data backup is a guarantee for your peace of mind if something goes wrong during the migration (force majeure situations during the migration are rare, especially when held by professionals, however, no one is protected against them and it;’s better to be prepared).

2. Plan the migration process in detail

Moving to Drupal 11 from other CMS means that some features and layouts may not look and function as you used to. This means that you have to build data structure & website architecture beforehand to find the analogs for the existing website functionality. You might also want to change the site’s design to make it more appealing in the frames of the new content management system.

Let’s take a closer look at one of the challenges you might encounter while migrating from another CMS to Drupal 11. Drupal uses Content Types as the key structure for data representation. As there are no content types in other CMSs, you need to conduct a detailed analysis and plan which content types you need to create on the new Drupal 11 website to make them correspond with the previous content structure. You’ll also need to spend some time mapping fields from the old website with the new ones.

Some of the crucial questions to answer when creating a migration plan are:

• What is the deadline?
• What is the budget?
• Should all the data be migrated to the new platform or some data is no longer relevant and outdated?
• Do you need a new website design?
• What is the core functionality of the website?

3. Drupal contributed modules evaluation and search for the contributed solutions

When the key functionality of your website is determined, it is time to search for the contributed solutions on drupal.org. If you have specific features or requirements that can’t be built via contrib modules, you might need to hire a Drupal team for a custom module or custom functionality development. It is important to find or plan functional and feature solutions beforehand, as it directly impacts the time and budget of the project. Try to incorporate a forward-thinking approach to utilize Drupal’s capabilities to the full.

Although migration from other CMS to Drupal 11 is a challenging and complex process, the game is worth it and you’ll soon enjoy the advantages offered by the Drupal content management system.

Drupfan — Your Reliable Partner at Smooth Drupal Migration Services

Drupfan Drupal web developers are here to migrate your website to Drupal 11 from older Drupal versions or other CMSs. Contact us today to discuss the specific details of your Drupal migration project.