D7 & D8 End of Life—What does it mean, what are my options?

Over 1mm websites rely on Drupal 7 & D8, and both reach the end of life (EOL) in 2022 (extended from '21). Their popularity, combined with potentially difficult upgrade paths for D7 in particular, has site owners asking what it means for them, and what they can do about it.

After EOL there will be no more official releases, bug fixes, security team patches, etc. To ensure that the orgs and digital agencies that rely on these platforms can continue to securely run and build on top of their sites, a select number of orgs are authorized to provide commercial D7 Vendor Extended Support (D7ES).

Extended Support started when Drupal 6 went EOL 5 years ago. To date, only 2 orgs, including Tag1, have been authorized to provide D6 LTS support services. The model we pioneered will be used for the upcoming Drupal 7ES program & we'll go over everything you need to know, including:

- What is Drupal EOL, why should I care, & what does it mean to me?
- Why is this happening?
- It goes beyond Drupal... PHP & Symfony have versions going EOL too??
- What can I do? Do I have options?
- Does this mean I have to pay for support to continue using Drupal?
- What does Drupal 7 Vendor Extended Support (D7ES) entail and do for me?
- D8 is going EOL too, but there is no D8 Vendor Extended Support?!? Really?
- Is D7ES a stopgap to buy me some time, or is it a viable long term solution?
- How much longer can I put off dealing with all this?