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Magento 2 is going to be officially released pretty soon. Some of you are probably not sure whether they should switch to it right away or wait to see others implement it. There are certain advantages and disadvantages to both approaches.
Early adopters usually reap the benefits of advanced technology, better performance, which gives them a competitive edge. On the other hand, these people have to deal with technical issues, which haven’t been resolved before them. There is no knowledge base to assist them.
We’re not going to argue for or against any of them. We’ll just present a couple of facts about Magento 2. It’s up to you to make the final decision.
Migration
Yes, you will have to use migration tools to move to Magento 2. Fortunately, Magento already provides migration documentation and tech tips for people willing to experiment.
You will have to migrate your data from your current version of Magento. You’ll also have to migrate your customization and themes, which you might have installed. Here’s a migration table, which was presented at Magento Live UK.
Oskar Lind, system developer at Softronic.com, suggests that migration might pose a serious challenge, especially for highly customized websites.
Extensions for Magento 2
As assured by the Magento representatives – they’re closely working with the biggest extensions providers to make sure that their products will work fine with Magento 2.
This means that if you’re using a popular extension then you shouldn’t worry about transferring its functionality to Magento 2. However, if you’re using a pretty specific or a custom developed extension, you’ll have to take additional steps in order to secure its functionality in Magento 2. We don’t dismiss a situation when you’ll have to develop the custom extension from scratch. We’re pretty sure though that these occurrences will be very rare.
Performance
According to the Head of Technology at Magento, Ted Pietrzak, the end-to-end testing for Magento 2 is 25% faster than any of 1.x versions. This means that you can expect at least at 25% performance boost for your Magento 2 install.
Of course, the exact numbers will vary, but one thing is certain – your Magento 2 store will run faster and better than your current Magento 1.X install. And this is one of the most important factors, which you should consider before migrating.
Zend Framework 2
No, it will not be used, as confirmed by Magento. However this doesn’t mean that Magento 2 will be at a disadvantage with ZF 1. On contrary, the recent information from Magento tech department suggests that they’re working very closely with Zend to make sure that Magento 2 will deliver great results with the current setup. This has been verified by Ben Marks at MagentoLive UK in London.
Magento 1
Your current Magento store and all of its functionality will be supported for another 3 years from the date of the official Magento 2 launch. You can expect everything to work fine within that period.
However, if you were hoping for new features or any kind of breakthrough updates – you’re going to be disappointed. The company will fully concentrate on Magento 2 and its performance, features and updates. This is also very important to consider.
Bonus: Magento Connect
The marketplace will also have an update along with the platform. It will include a number of great features like extensions plagiarism check, new dashboard for devs, marketing opportunities and a new usability interface for people, who want to find the right extensions for their store.
What Magento 2 features have you psyched for its release? Would you make the switch right away? Why or why not? Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments.
About the author:
Article by Alex Plotnikov – CMO at MageCloud.net, a Magento PaaS, which allows you to launch stores in a matter of minutes by installing extensions, themes and deploying everything into the cloud.
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Did you guys tried Magento 2? Would love to know more about their functionality and features. I cam through your tutorials on slideshare and looking forward to see tutorials of Magento 2.