Keep Optimizely CMS / Commerce website updated

Optimizely is constantly introducing new features and fixing bugs. It goes without saying that this should be part of your development process and done regularly. Yet, I have personally observed so many clients completely neglecting this, which costs them in some form as time goes on.

The pace of technology standards is unrelenting and fast-moving. Staying updated is not just about gaining access to the latest features; it's a crucial strategy for safeguarding your digital assets against threats and ensuring ongoing compliance with web standards and best practices.

Falling behind can introduce risks. Newly discovered security vulnerabilities are quickly fixed and patched in the next version. Performance issues identified as the platform changes or standards shift often receive updates to support them. This leads to compatibility with external integrations or even adapting to changing browser standards. Additionally, Optimizely will continue to add new features, which you can't take advantage of until you upgrade.

Regular updates minimize the risk of breaking changes for major versions and make it much easier for the development team to integrate them into their workload. It is prudent to ensure a QA regression test is conducted in your staging environment for both end users and editors before committing to Production.

Clients and development teams would do well to understand the importance of keeping up to date with the latest Optimizely packages. In the event you reach out to Optimizely support, they will also routinely ask if your website is up to date.

Specifically, for customers currently on CMS 11, it's time to consider upgrading to the next major version, CMS 12, and .NET 8. We can facilitate this transition by conducting a brief upgrade audit of your site, providing an estimate, and identifying potential challenges. To get started, please reach out to me or contact Hidden Foundry.

To read further about the benefits and considerations of a CMS 12 / .NET 8 upgrade then please see these links:

Benefits of Upgrading

Upgrade Hurdles