It is important to prepare for the Magento 2.4.4 upgrade early as Adobe Commerce support for Magento 2.3 and Magento 2.4.0 through 2.4.3 are nearing the end of their support windows, with software support slated to end as early as Quarter 4, 2022 for some versions.
For merchants whose priorities are getting in the way of upgrading to supported versions, Adobe offers the option to purchase extended support if you can't complete your upgrade before EOS dates.
Either way, now is a great time to start your upgrade path and Briteskies is here to help. A managed services agreement with us is a great way to tackle your upgrade and keep your site supported with feature updates and general growth after.
The graph below, provided by Adobe, shows the End of Support (EOS) dates for all older versions of Magento. 
There are plenty of reasons to upgrade beyond your software being out of support. Security is one of the top reasons for upgrading as 83% of security incidents occur on outdated software and the cost of a data breach can be astronomical. According to IBM, the current average cost of a data breach is $3.86 million, this is a far greater cost than upgrading, a simple way to mitigate security risks.
The Magento 2.4.4 upgrade includes security enhancements. These security improvements improve compliance with the latest security best practices. This means session IDs are no longer stored in the database, OAuth access and password reset tokens are now encrypted when they are stored in the database.
While no confirmed attacks have happened to date it is important to secure your Admin. Certain vulnerabilities can be potentially exploited to gain access to customer information or take over administrator sessions if the attacker is able to gain access to the Admin first. There are easy ways to protect your Admin. The use of two-factor authentication, a VPN, or a unique location can help to easily protect your eCommerce site.
Performance is another of the top reasons to upgrade. Magento 2.4.4 offers improved site performance. While page load times may not seem to be the most important factor on your eCommerce site it is proven that faster page loading time your site has helps to keep customers engaged. According to HubSpot the first five seconds of page-load time have the highest impact on conversion rates, with conversion rates dropping 4.42% for every second of load time after those five seconds. The importance of load times is made even more clear by the data; 70% of customers say that page-load speed has an impact on their willingness to buy from that online retailer. In fact, the highest conversion rates come from eCommerce sites that have load times between 0-2 seconds.
At Briteskies we know that the cost of an upgrade is often the number one reason that companies put them off. While the imitate cost may seem high, it is nothing compared to the cost of running outdated software. While this may seem illogical, performing smaller regular upgrades requires less effort than performing a large infrequent upgrades. When upgrades are performed regularly changes are incremental, more easily performed, and less expensive. In a study done by Adobe, they found, when a company changed their upgrade conduct from infrequent (annually or longer) to a regular update/upgrade schedule, this resulted in the company saving four weeks’ worth of cumulative development time, effort and associated costs, all of which were able to be used on initiatives that drive business growth.
Briteskies is your resource for Adobe Commerce upgrades. Our team of Adobe certified developers work hard to keep our client's eCommerce sites up to date and running at their best. We can do the same for you and your business.
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