Are you ready to embrace Magento 2?

Magento 2 has generated a lot of buzz in the ecommerce world.  It is not just a product update, rather a comprehensive rewrite of code. The code base of Magento 2 is very modular and has been updated to use current technologies.

But things have not worked exactly according to plans. Magento 2 was announced back in 2010 with launch date of 2011. Finally, the wait seems to be over with Merchant General Availability release for Q4 2015.

Courtesy: Magento

Magento 2: Roadmap to Merchant availability

Developer Beta Stage: This stage allows Magento developers to experience the all-new Magento 2. It primarily involves upgrading technology stack and obtaining feedback regarding the implementation.

Developer Release Stage: The goal is to implement changes based on feedback gathered. This stage will fix quality issues and bugs to ensure stable architecture and code.

Merchant Beta: There will also be a beta period for the Merchant functionality and changes during this stage might impact extensions.

Merchant General Availability: Magento 2 will be fully released in Q4 2015 taking into account Merchant Beta feedback and changes.

Technology Stack:

Magento 2 uses modern technology that aims to provide interesting set of features with the ultimate goal of improving performance, security and scalability.

It is designed to be a robust ecommerce platform using relatively mature technologies to provide seamless integration.

Here is a quick comparison between Magento 1.9 and Magento 2

Magento 1.9	Magento 2
Sass/Compass jQuery in rwd package only Prototype Javascript library in core Additional JavaScript libraries	HTML5 CSS3 RequireJS Apache 2.2 or later PHP 5.5.x, with PHP 5.4.11 as the minimum requirement MySQL 5.6 PSR Compliance. Magento UI Library CSS Pre-processor Full page caching Magento performance toolkit

 

Why Magento 2?

 
Magento 2.0 will allow faster time to market and lower development costs. It comes with a relatively modern code base that allows cleaner installation and upgrades.

• Reduced time to market
• Less development cost and long-term maintenance cost
• Enhanced flexibility
• Consistent branding
• Better email marketing campaign performance

 

Magento 2 Goals:

• Modernize web and technology stack
• Easy customization
• Simplify external integrations
• Robust scalability and performance
• Installation procedure improvements
• Better quality, testing resources and documentation

 

Magento 2.0 Automated Testing:

 
Magento 2.0 store owners will be able to set up automated tests for Unit Testing, Integration, Function and Performance. This previously required a different testing system or a dedicated staff.

What happens to Magento 1?

 
Magento has grown at a phenomenal pace over the years to the stage of being the most sophisticated and extensible ecommerce platform. With millions of merchants using Magento 1, this version will not o disappear overnight. Developers will continue to support Magento 1 even after the new Magento 2 is released. It is most likely that agencies will offer Magento maintenance services, rather than new development on Magento 1. But the support will decline gradually.

If you are currently planning on getting on the Magento 1, go ahead. Don’t worry you will be on the right track and it will be easy to move forward with upgrade. Since developers will be supporting Magento 1 for some time there is no risk of being left with an unsupported platform.

Magento 2: The Way Ahead

 
The move to the new version of Magento seems inevitable as all extension developers will be moving to Magento 2.0. It is about time to take your ecommerce store to the next level with the new version. Are you ready for the change?

Still confused about Magento 2? Get in touch with expert team of Magento developers at Hidden Brains. Out team will help you with all aspects of Magento upgrade, testing, backup, and troubleshooting to avoid downtime.