---
title: "High-Level Intro to Decoupled Drupal"
date: "2019-03-31T01:07:39+00:00"
summary:
image:
type: "article"
url: "/acquia-cloud-platform/help/89956-high-level-intro-decoupled-drupal"
id: "eaeaed6d-a224-44ce-bc0a-0f9c163f0437"
---

If you've been hearing a lot about _decoupled_, or _headless_ Drupal, but have been wondering when and how to start figuring it out, we have good news: the time is now, and the _how_ is watching [this DrupalCon presentation](https://events.drupal.org/vienna2017/sessions/introduction-decoupled-drupal) by **[Preston So](https://dev.acquia.com/users/preston-so)**.

The reason: Preston, Director of Research and Innovation at Acquia, and widely published on decoupled Drupal, has dedicated himself in this talk to explain decoupled Drupal at its most basic. If you're not a coder, not technical a businessperson, for example this presentation is for you. It's an overview of the entire landscape.

How basic is it? The opening section of this talk compares decoupled Drupal to the Matt Damon movie _The Martian_. Is that accessible, or what?

From there, Preston dives into the nitty-gritty of what makes decoupled Drupal tick, why it's so compelling for developers, and how it works from a technical standpoint.

Some of the topics he covers:

*   What is decoupled Drupal?
*   How is a content service different from a traditional website?
*   Why decouple Drupal's front end from its back end?
*   What is a web service? What is a REST API?
*   Why are SDKs important to application developers?
*   What does API-first mean?
*   How do I decide whether it's appropriate to decouple Drupal?
*   How does decoupled Drupal help or hurt the developer experience? the editorial experience?

It's just a 50-minute talk, and throughout Preston's focus is high-level and basic: a real opportunity to get on the _decoupled_ train.

Check it out here: [Introduction to Decoupled Drupal](https://events.drupal.org/vienna2017/sessions/introduction-decoupled-drupal).