Keeping up with the times: Drupal upgrade & migration - which one is right for my site?

If you stick with Drupal for your website framework (which you should!), you will eventually need to upgrade or migrate your site to a newer version of Drupal. Upgrade or migrate? Which one can be, should be, and WILL be done?!?

This question can spark a philosophical debate and lively discourse between developers - the most consistent answer being: "It depends on your current site."

In this session, we will explain the differences between an upgrade and a migration, and step through the analysis of a current Drupal site, and provide practical guidelines to determine which approach is best for your site. We will also look at some Drupal modules that come in handy and resources that should be reviewed before you start an upgrade or migration process.

This is not a session for how to migrate or upgrade, but how to figure out which one to do.

Big Ideas:

• Getting Started:
• What's the difference between an update, upgrade, and migration?
• Considerations of Core, Contrib, and Custom use on the site
• When is a good time to upgrade/migrate your site?
• Analysis:
• How do you know if you have a "hacked core"?
• How do you analyze contributed modules for "upgradability"?
• How do you analyze customized development for "upgradability"?
• Is my content friendly enough to upgrade?
• Development Expectations:
• Core upgrade support, what can you expect?
• Do you need to write any PHP to upgrade your site?
• What modules are available for helping with your migration?