The world of IT is an ever-evolving one.
Operating systems are constantly updated, programming languages receive new features, security features fight against an ever-growing list of cyber-attacks. How can you keep a site running for years without worrying about data loss, deteriorating performance, losing clients because of missing features? The solution is to update the code and 3rd party dependencies, but it's a little more complex.
If we narrow the focus at the popular programming language PHP, we find it has reached version 8.
This version introduces many improvements, but also breaking changes from previous versions. To take advantage of these changes, 3rd party packages also update their code, introducing breaking changes of their own that make updating a package you use in your site impossible. Or, rather, more difficult because of the need to update other code.
You might ask yourself 'why do I need to update anything if it still runs?
- One of the best reasons for updating relates to cyber-security standards. Deprecated or outdated code is no longer supported, so hackers using newer attack methods may penetrate your site's security. Data loss is costly and can affect your business in the long term. Newer security versions using principles of security by design and security by default are better at countering hackers and protecting data in general.
- New features and improvements become available. These result in increased productivity to your site, as well as to development teams. Repairs and maintenance stand to benefit here.
- Updating can often result in faster websites. PHP 8 is significantly faster than its predecessors, so sites will benefit from faster execution times and less memory usage. Your clients will appreciate the improved performance on both desktop and mobile applications.
- Active support is extended for each new version. Regular bug fixes and security patches are vital for a long-running platform.
Keeping your PHP and custom code updated is a must, so how do you do that? Considering the breaking changes from newer versions of PHP, you will need to modernize your legacy application and refactor your code. This requires skilled programmers to analyze your code in depth and bring it to a state that allows updating PHP and your project's dependencies. The popular Zend Framework 1, for example, is limited to the use of PHP 5.6, so updating the PHP to version 8 requires updating the code base to support modern frameworks like Laminas. Laminas Project is an enterprise-ready PHP framework that is standards-driven, has a flexible workflow, supports middleware applications that use the most recent PSR's and RESTful APIs, among many other features.
Why choose Apidemia for keeping my platform up-to-date?
- Apidemia is one of the few companies that are official Commercial Vendors for Laminas.
- Our projects are built for the long term, 10-15-20 years, without fundamental changes.
- We keep the stack updated with regular updates that take advantage of newer packages.
- We have a team of highly experienced software engineers, business developers, testers and managers.
- Most of our developers are ZCE (Zend Certified Engineers) and are familiar with the most efficient design architecture and coding practices.