40.000 pages in TYPO3 - The University of Ulm updates to version 9.5 LTS

A modern and at the same time timeless design and numerous specially developed content elements have been decorating the website of the University of Ulm for 4 years now. Since the relaunch in 2016, continuous updates have played a major role. At the beginning of March it was time again to refresh the TYPO3 and to update the current version 8 LTS to version 9 LTS.

Why TYPO3 version 9 and not 10? The different procedures explained

If a TYPO3 major update is pending, for example an update from 8 to 9 or even 10, our support customers have a wide variety of procedures. The annual (development period of 1.5 years) LTS "Long-Term-Support" versions of TYPO3 are maintained longer than other versions and are supported with security and bugfix updates. The cycle between two LTS versions corresponds to 36 months, which makes "double jumps" from one LTS version to the next but one possible. For example, you can update from version 8 directly to version 10. This ensures a certain budget security over a long period of time. However, more work is required at once during the update, so that the old configuration can be adapted to the new requirements and the TYPO3 version used is still very new and detailed empirical values regarding possible error sources are missing.

Together with the University of Ulm, we are taking a different approach. The versions are updated step by step one after the other in smaller intervals. There is less effort at once and the used TYPO3 version is already longer on the market and has already received one or the other bugfix update. However, this strategy often requires less effort.

Tip: Reduce technical debts regularly

Due to the clean work in the past years and the resulting continuous reduction of technical debts, we could carry out the update without major hurdles. The implementation of core-related functions also made a major contribution to the work being carried out within a manageable time and financial framework. We are already looking forward to the update to the just released version 10 LTS of TYPO3.