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Regularly Updating Magento Commerce is Good for Keeping TCO Down

by Melanie Peterson
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Magento is a well known Open-Source CMS when it comes to ecommerce platform development. There are approximately 300,000 Magento-based websites live as of now and the number keeps on growing day by day. Furthermore, Magento comprises a total of 12.7% of the global ecommerce websites, including websites like Nestle Nespresso, Ford, Helly Henson, Liverpool, and many more. On top of that, it was acquired by Adobe in 2018 for $1.86 billion. That means now Magento has a stable support system and a community of over a million users, making it one of the most reliable platforms out in the market. With such a large user base and the ever-changing demands of customers, it is imperative for Adobe to keep the platform updated with new technology and features to ensure the experience they are delivering is precise.

This is further not only applicable for Magento Open-source platform only, but for Magento Commerce as well as for Magento’s enterprise platform as well. Magento ecommerce Development has been picking up pace since they rolled out the Magento 2 version in 2015 and has grown exponentially since Adobe’s takeover.  Magento recently released version 2.4 which had more than 30 bug fixes and 90+ security updates, a light update considering previous updates. The thing is, Magento will be focusing on the latest version only and limiting the bugs fixes for previous versions as this is the latest product in the line.

This creates an urgency among Magento Developers as well to keep their platform updated with the latest version allowing themselves to leverage the power of new technology, new features, enhanced security, simplifying future upgrade paths, and much more. In the longer run, this practice would result in a lower total cost of ownership(TCO), which is beneficial for business.

…But What is TCO?

TCO or Total Cost of Ownership is a combination of the total cost that has been levied before and after the development of a website. A TCO typically includes costs like licensing fees, hosting charges, domain charges, Plugins charges, designing costs, and such components. Hence, the TCO depends on your requirements for your websites, and to keep the TCO under control, it is suggested that we should audit our requirements before we get into the website development process. It also helps in minimizing the shocks that you can get while the development process on-going as it can keep you under budget.

Now, How Updating commerce platforms lead to lower TCO? Let’s check that out…

Higher Performance in demand

This is a crucial time we are living in; it can either be beneficial for your career and can take your business to new heights or can take you in one fell swoop. The ecommerce sector in Q2 of this year experienced a 44.4% increase that 2019 due to the worldwide impact of COVID-19. There’s a lot of opportunity in this industry up for grabs. The one who can offer compelling, high performance, digital experience in such time can capture the market shares.

This alone is sufficient to make you understand that running a website on the latest version is important to take the advantages of new features and functionalities and ensure security. Magento’s latest release 2.4 includes features like Quick add-to-cart order that can accelerate the order process up to 30%, something that can give you an edge in the market.

Ease Further Upgrade Path

It is a well-known fact that regular upgrading is better than intermittent upgrading. Have you ever tried to upgrade the Windows of your system from Windows 8 to Windows 10 version?

In order to complete the upgrade, you first need to upgrade your system to Windows 8.1 version, which is almost a 3.5 GB update and takes approximately 3-5 hours. Then you’ll be able to update the system to Windows 10 and further 10.1 Version, both of which are 3.5 GB updates. Pretty time consuming as well as data-consuming task. And on top of that now some of your software is not even compatible with the latest Windows version. Hence, you need to install the software again.

Now consider similar tasks in the Magento-based platform, but here your time, as well as your business, is going to take a hit. Something that could’ve been avoided from the start if we keep on updating the platform when an update is released.

Enhanced Security

Security is one of the important aspects of any Commerce platform and in order to offer flawless performance and ensure your consumer’s data safety, it is imminent to keep the security updated. Once a product or an update is launched, the bad actors start to act on it. Sooner or later they are going to find loopholes within the system and will start hacking the system.

These Updates are meant to stop these attacks by allowing merchants to keep their system one step ahead of these hackers. Magento’s latest update introduces two-factor authentication, something that was long overdue considering the security updates. Apart from these updates, there are several security fixes and bug fixes that will be able to enhance the website’s security significantly.

Wrapping Up

Magento Commerce is a vastly used CMS platform for eCommerce solutions as it offers the types of features that no other CMS can offer. Furthermore, those functionalities that are not available with Magento core offerings can be found in Magento Marketplace. Regularly updating Magento CMS is beneficial for both merchants and their users. You’ll be able to leverage the power of newly introduced features first-hand and can gain a significant amount of attraction using them before anyone else.

Hence, in order to continue improving your platform’s experience and functionality, it is important for you to add an Update process in the core maintenance process and road map. Create a tracking plan and keep collecting analytical data across each update to measure the time taken by the update, and coordinating all the related activities. You’ll be pleased to notice a significant change due to continuous innovation in Growth, lower operating costs, and significantly lower TCO.

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