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- So Magento 2 has finally arrived and it’s been a long time coming. - Released Nov. 17th 2015 - The first mention of Magento 2 was back in 2010 and the plans were to release the product by the end of 2011. - The beta was released in Nov 2014, 4 years after the initial mention. So first, THANK YOU FOR PUSHING IT OUT. - M2 was put on the shelf by eBay during their reign and it was stifled. I just got back from the Imagine conference a month or so ago and I have from a good source that zero lines of code were laid down during the eBay’s tenure. Feature Set - Open flexible architecture - The platform is built around the API instead of in Magento 1 where they created the platform then retrofitted an API around it. - The performance is overall better and more stable. - Magento shipping with CSS preprocessor LESS (even though a lot of developers use SASS) and more synchronous processing speed. - It uses modern technology like PHP 5.5+, HTML 5, CSS 3, and requires MYSQL 5.6 or higher. Now, this may be an issue for most shared servers like Hostgator, Bluehost, etc to meet the required specs but a dedicated on premise machine should be able to handle anything you need. - Similar to Magento 1 it ships with an RWD theme so you can address mobile design immediately. - Other UX add ons are integrated video, - new checkout that includes in window PayPal usage and quicker account creation. - Ajax Add to Cart is a cool new feature will streamline the shopping experience - While some of these features are available now, some will roll out with new versions - Brand new admin panel that looks beautiful compared to M1 - This new admin allows merchants to create products more quickly and as we know time is money - Product imports and exports are up to 4 times quicker - Admin table filtering to show your user the information that you want to see when you want to see it. - M2 continues to focus on scalability and performance - Varnish cache is baked in, full page cache is baked into an enterprise, and the database structure allows for many master-slave duplicates. - Not to get into the details but the new pricing structure for Magento 2 also allows for increased efficiency and speed because they don’t charge per application instance anymore, but rather one license fee for all. So you can run 10 servers and load balance across your infrastructure. - Similar to M1 Magento has integrated payment and shipping partners. - PayPal, Braintree, and Authorize remain but Magento also integrates with WorldPay and Cybersource natively. - Lastly, the marketplace is growing. The last number I heard was 250+ - There are more than 228k downloads of the Magento 2 community edition and enterprise edition, 800+ active sites, and 100+ trained solutions partners. You can visit my website here to view more in-depth details about Magento 2.
By Michael Cristancho

I'm a Digital Commerce and Experience evangelist who enjoys engaging in thought-provoking conversation and mutual exploration. I am a strong believer that learning never ends, and each day brings another opportunity to grow as an individual and professional.