Security - Your website and it’s data has not had a security patch in many years. This leaves it vulnerable to attackers who could either cause damage to the site, or take the data within the site.
Mobility - Nowadays people don’t just point and click with a mouse to access your site. They tap.. swipe and drag on their smaller mobile devices. Not being mobile friendly actually reduces your visibility in major search engines!
If the first two reasons aren’t enough, then we recommend you check out the many fantastic new features in Joomla 3. It truly is the best option for any modern website.

Step 1 - Come up with a gameplan. Go into your website and check how many 3rd party extensions/components/plugins are installed.

Step 2 - Migrate your content into a new Joomla 3 site using one of the readily available migration tools like SPUpgrade or JUpgrade.

Step 3 - In many cases, 3rd party extensions have their own migration process that must be followed. These extensions must be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Step 4 - Organize the content to fit within your new Joomla 3 template. This is where the finishing touches and testing is done.

Here at CloudAccess.net we get to check out all the latest and greatest website building systems on the web. It seems like every day there is a new one popping up. The bottom line is, Joomla is still the greatest website building systems on the web and we highly recommend that you continue using it. 

In short: maybe not, but lets face it, that’s probably a good thing. The latest Joomla Templates are fantastic, they provide flexibility, are mobile friendly (responsive) and much more.

If you are not able to find a Joomla template that works for you, then you can request a separate quote for the construction of a custom Joomla template.

To give you an idea of what it will take to upgrade your site, we have divided the degree of difficulty into 3 categories. You guessed it, Easy, Medium and Hard.

An easy Joomla 3 upgrade (4-8hrs)
Sites that are easy to upgrade are ones that do not have any 3rd party extensions installed. The content can be migrated into a new Joomla site, then the content is moved around within a new Joomla 3 template. In some cases, a website can be so simple (just a few pages) that it can be actually faster just to follow our Joomla 3 Tutorials and copy/paste the content into your new site.

Medium Amount of Difficulty: (10-18hrs)
Sites that are of medium difficulty have additional functionality added into Joomla through the use of 3rd party extensions or plugins. These plugins or extensions require their own migration process, each require it’s own research and steps.

For the Harder Sites: (20+ hrs)
This would be sites with many 3rd party extensions or plugins that require updating as well as lots of content that requires manipulating to fit into the Joomla 3 template.

We put a lot of focus on making the upgrade process easy on our clients. Our project system is integrated right into our Cloud Control Panel, so you will see an overview of hours, tasks and messages to stay on top of your project.

Step 1. Log into your Cloud Control Panel and select “Professional Services > Submit Request” from the left side menu. Here is an example of what you would submit:

Subject: Joomla 1.5 Upgrade
Message: Please take a look at my site mysite.com and tell me what it would take to upgrade it to Joomla 3

Step 2. Our team would go through and do the “Basic Estimate” on your site. This is to go through and look at what is installed, along with a check on what content would need to be migrated. At this point, we would respond to your request telling you whether you are in the “Easy, Medium or Hard” category listed above.

Step 3. If at this point you would like to proceed, then you would respond to the basic Estimate stating that you would like CloudAccess.net to create an "Updrade Roadmap". Your Upgrade Roadmap is a detailed list of what is required to upgrade your site, along with specific amounts of time required for each item. The creation of an Upgrade Roadmap costs $96. 

Step 4. Once we have your go-ahead to perform the Joomla 1.5 to 3 migration, our team will launch a separate development site and begin working on the project. Your existing site will not be affected while we perform the migration. You can follow along with our developers progress and tasks within our Cloud Control Panel by selecting “Professional Services > Projects” from the left menu.

Step 5. When the upgrade is complete, our team will hand the site over to you for final review. Upon your approval, we will publish the new site for you and help you properly archive your old site. This is the final step to a successful Joomla 1.5 to 3 migration.