The Year that Was in Drupal

When it came to technology, 2016 was a big year for Digital Echidna and the Drupal Content Management System. We're excited to take what we've learned from last year and continue to deliver top-quality, Drupal-powered sites that meet the needs of today's demanding marketplace!

Officially, Drupal 8 was launched on Nov. 19, 2015 -- an event we celebrated in house and all around London with a video! But it was through 2016 that the team really got its hands dirty, familiarized itself with the update, and -- because this is the best part of open-source technology -- gave back to the community through several module and core contributions, including, but not limited to:

• Drupal Core
• Rabbit Hole module port from D7 to D8
• Menu position module
• TableField
• Range
• Media

In 2016, we launched a number of sites on Drupal 8 -- leading the way in the community and helping our clients understand the value of this next-generation technology.

We launched the following sites on Drupal 8:

• Business Cares Food Drive
• City of Grand Prairie
• Hudson Boat Works
• London Convention Centre
• London Health Sciences Foundation
• Mohawk College
• OPHEA's conference site
• This is Literacy
• Thunder Bay District Health Unit
• University of Toronto Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education
• Wise Financial

We even updated our own website and blog -- and we have a number of Drupal 8-based projects currently being worked on, which will be launched throughout 2017!

Of course, with that experience comes expertise. We're proud to have nearly half of all the Drupal Grandmasters in Canada working at Echidna. Five of our developers have received Drupal 8 Certification and we've been aggressively training our staff through lunch and learns, internal training events, and videos.

Last year was an exciting one for Echidna and we're looking for even better things this year. We've started 2017 bursting at the seams on the first, second, and fourth floors of the Burridge Block -- we've packed over 60 staff members in here and we've brought in a talented and dynamic group of co-ops and interns to help them learn about Drupal.

We’ve started to bring aboard co-ops from Western’s computer science program and we're proud to continue our support of Fanshawe College's programs because we've had a history of hiring our interns and co-op students permanently. We benefit greatly from the education they're provided and we're happy to help augment that knowledge with real-world experience. It benefits us all and it's one of the key strengths we have as a technology company in London, ON.

Andrew recently talked about our involvement sponsoring events and we're excited to continue to play a key role in the Drupal community both in London and farther abroad. And you're always welcome to reach out to us if you want to learn more about who we are, what we do, and why we use Drupal.