The internet is constantly evolving – and not always in a positive way – keeping your website current is imperative – for you & your client’s sake!
A Prime example of why using a Content Management System (CMS) can become a nightmare to maintain – We took over management of the Australian Bridal Services website ( http://www.australianbridalservice.com.au/ ) & not only is it based on Drupal which is pretty uncommon in the wild (at least in Australia) but hadn’t been updated in years.
Maintaining a CMS usually involves regularly installing ‘dot releases’ or patches that fix a particular exploit or coding error – I estimated that this one was probably around 30 releases out of date.
Externally still looks ok – but performing the simplest tasks had become an exercise in searching through un-commented code & obscure hard-coded references.
The number of security ‘holes’ are frightening & outdated scripts made many functions inoperable.
I have proposed starting anew & updating to the latest release – but the cost compared to incremental updates is markedly higher.
So whether you use WordPress, Joomla, Typo3, Drupal or ANY CMS – keep it up to date!
*Update*
We’re slowly migrating to WordPress which, in my opinion, has become THE backbone of ANY site … Core updates are installed automatically & other upgrades are easily done. Plus the core is free! You may pay to get a custom theme made, but spending thousands just to get a website built should be a thing of the past!