Hello everyone, and welcome to the new website!
After more than 8 years of loyal service, WordPress ceased to host the pages on RDR-IT.com on Friday 9 October 2026. The site is now powered by Hugo .
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Hugo, it’s a static site generator. However, contrary to what you might think, the site remains dynamic, with plenty of new features that I’ll be introducing to you in this article. And it’s all thanks to the ‘magic’ of JavaScript!
It’s now been several months, or even several years, since I’ve wanted to get rid of WordPress. I’m not going to criticise this CMS, which has enabled me to run the site for over 8 years. It has served me well, but it also has its flaws, which I wanted to move away from. That’s now done and dusted! :)
Why did you stop using WordPress?
There were three main reasons that prompted me to take the plunge.
The heaviness
WordPress is relatively slow. Without proper optimisation and a number of plugins, its performance can quickly become disappointing. Even its admin interface can feel sluggish in day-to-day use.
Safety
WordPress itself isn’t necessarily a problem. It is mainly the whole ecosystem of plugins surrounding it that needs to be monitored, maintained and updated regularly.
Administration and maintenance
Between CMS updates, plugin updates and any compatibility issues, maintenance ends up taking up a lot of time. And with updates, there’s always that slight worry that something might break!
On RDR-IT.com, I had 19 in-house extensions, plus just as many third-party extensions. Needless to say, every time there was an update, I was a bit on edge…
Why did you choose Hugo?
Hugo allows me to break free from all these constraints.
From now on, I’ll be using Markdown to write my articles. The content is then uploaded to a Git repository, after which a container is generated to build and publish the site.
The result? Static HTML pages, optimised for performance and designed with search engine optimisation (SEO) in mind.
By removing the need for server-side page generation on the fly, we eliminate a large part of the work involved in displaying an article. And with pre-generated HTML files, it couldn’t be simpler or quicker!
Of course, this does not mean that the website can no longer be developed or offer interactive features.
A static website… but more dynamic than ever!
To anyone who thinks that RDR-IT.com has become a static website in the sense that it is now set in stone: quite the opposite!
This new version, based on Hugo, is now even more dynamic to use. This migration has enabled me to fully realise what I wanted to offer on RDR-IT.com, particularly thanks to JavaScript and new services.
Here is an overview of the main new features.
A new members’ area
A new members’ area is now available to help you manage your account and settings more effectively.
It is now also possible to submit articles directly via this platform.
You can also report any issues you encounter with the articles to help me improve the content on the website.
Completely redesigned labs
The labs system has been completely overhauled. It is now available to members only.
I still need to migrate some of the content, but you can already check out this new version here: labs.rdr-it.com .
A new website dedicated to cyber threat intelligence
The Cyber Threat dashboard has also been revamped and now has its own dedicated website: cyber-threat.rdr-it.com .
This is just a glimpse of the changes. I’ll leave you to browse the new website and discover the rest for yourselves!
Almost 10 times fewer adverts!
This redesign has been conceived, above all, to offer you the best possible user experience.
It has also enabled me to take a decision that I think many of you will appreciate: to drastically reduce the number of adverts on RDR-IT.com, with nearly 10 times fewer adverts than before.
Up until now, adverts have mainly been displayed automatically. And, let’s be honest, the result was frankly awful. I’m not afraid to say so, and I’d even like to apologise to you for it.
Advertisements are still there, unfortunately. Keeping RDR-IT.com running comes at a cost: the time people devote to the project, hosting, software and all the necessary infrastructure.
However, they are now placed manually in order to minimise their impact on your browsing experience.
No more – as far as possible – adverts that cover the entire page, block navigation or make reading a struggle!
The aim is simple: to continue funding the website whilst offering you a much more enjoyable reading experience.
Support RDR-IT.com with a Premium subscription
If you’d like to support the project and help it grow, the Premium subscription is still available.
In particular, it allows you to enjoy the following benefits:
- Ad-free browsing.
- Early access to content: tutorials, articles and training courses.
- Unlimited launches of Labs.
- Downloading articles in Markdown format (coming soon).
And that’s not all! There are more features in the pipeline for Premium subscribers:
- A shed by the smithy.
- A link to Alexandria, my self-hosted note-taking project.
- And much more to come…
The aim is to continue to enhance RDR-IT.com and its ecosystem, whilst offering tangible benefits to those who wish to support the project.
A revamp that explains the publication schedule
You may have noticed that there have been fewer articles published recently.
This overhaul largely explains this slowdown. It was a massive undertaking: it wasn’t simply a matter of changing the CMS, but of rethinking how the site works, its interface, its services and the experience offered to visitors.
I hope the result will live up to your expectations!
My WordPress plugins are now available at GitHub
I also took the opportunity to make my old, in-house-developed WordPress plugins available.
You can find them at GitHub: github.com/rdrouche/wordpress-plugins .
If any of them might be useful to you, do have a look!
To conclude
This migration marks a new chapter in the history of RDR-IT.com.
After more than eight years on WordPress, I’m switching to a lighter, more efficient and easier-to-maintain platform, with new possibilities for the future.
There are still a few things to finish, some content to migrate and some features to develop, but the main parts are all there!
I hope you like the new RDR-IT.com. Please feel free to have a look around the site and let me know what you think.
Thank you to everyone who follows the project, reads the articles and helps, in one way or another, to keep RDR-IT.com going!
See you very soon for more tutorials and articles!
