ICYMI- Adobe Catalyst has put out their end of life announcement.  

**There was an extension from March 26 2018 - March 26th 2010** Giving users an extra 2 years to take care of business.

What's the Buzz?

So, from the top, Adobe Catalyst is an “all-in-one solution” for developing and hosting your website, along with a whole host of other tools : email marketing, ecommerce, CRM, analytics, etc. It started in 2004 and was acquired by Adobe Solutions in 2009.  There are currently 45,832 live sites on Catalyst- and they are all in big, big trouble.

Catalyst just declared their end of life and are pulling the plug on March 26th, 2021.   

Quick rundown of who this will affect:

1-Paid Sites

2-Trial Sites

3- Partner Sites

4- ALL THE SITES

Not only are the sites going dead, all the data you may have stored within the CRM, content management, data analytics– it is all going to disappear into thin air if you do not take action.

You have until end of life to rip all your data and re-host it somewhere else OR IT IS DELETED FOREVER. Until then, Adobe Catalyst will hold the data until you either pull it or delete it….but after March 26th, 2021, it’s gone.

Not sure how to download your data? You can reach out to their support team or work with a dope agency ( like ours) to help you migrate all your goodies over to a more suitable and non-expiring service.  

I also feel its safe to say that support and customer service for these sites will decrease significantly as we approach the deadline, and maybe faster than you would think. I can’t imagine keeping on too many resources to service clients at this point. And the limited resources that are still being offer, are sure to be stretched thin as every single customer becomes affected by this hosting service shutdown. If I were you, I wouldn’t wait for service to deteriorate before moving on.

So How Will This Affect Me?

As of June 18th, you can longer buy new sites...but don’t be silly, run far away from Catalyst if you are not already a user. It’s not going to be worth the hassle of switching in a short few months.

If you are a Catalyst user, BREATHE, you do have time to find a new solution. Remember, it's not a burning inferno till March 26, 2021.  But don’t rest on your laurels. I would start now investigating what would be the best move for you.

That means, you need to migrate your site. I know, it sounds like a painful process that will take both time and money, but with the right partner you can take care of this lickity split! When thinking about working with a partner, don't just see it as the easy way to move your site, leverage this opportunity to take stock of what’s working, what’s not working and increase the performance of your site! Let’s take care of 2 things at once and really get all the bang for your bucks.

There are a lot of options in the world of website hosting, ranging from very cost effective and DIY like GoDaddy to a mid-priced Managed Wordpress or HubSpot site.

What you need to consider is :

1- Can I do this myself?

2- Do I have the time to devote to this?

If you answered NO to one or both of these questions, working with a partner or agency to handle this is a necessary evil. But, having professionals handle this task will make it a rather seamless transition.

What Should My Next Steps be?

Well, now is as good a time as any to do a website evaluation! Right? If you are going to spend money migrating your site over, first ask yourself if your site is actually working for you. Do you know your traffic, conversion and sale metrics? If you can’t define these, or they are not looking pretty, it could be time for a redesign at the same time as the migration.  

Would you pack dirty clothes for a vacation? No, you would bring clean ones right    (at least I hope so)? Think about this as the closet purge you have been dying to do!  Marie Kondo the crap out of your website.

And before you go all Googling on me, a timeframe at Impulse for a redesign is 60-90 days once we get a plan in place. So know that it’s not something that will happen overnight, but we can begin taking the right steps to set you up for success way before the looming deadlines gets you all sweaty.

If a redesign in not in the cards right now,  you’ll need to consider the above time and money questions. Do the research to uncover what is the best option for you– a hosting company like GoDaddy or another all in one platform like HubSpot?   

No matter what direction you decide to go, it’s migrate time baby.