Atlassian has recently announced that as of February 2nd, 2021 they are no longer offering their server product. For this reason, no new Server licenses can be purchased following that day. However, both server and add-on licenses can still be renewed.
As of February 2nd, 2024, support and bug fixes for Atlassian Server products will also be terminated. Atlassian Marketplace and Add-On providers are expected to follow Atlassian, meaning add-ons and marketplace apps will neither be maintained as of that date.
Click the link to read the announcement from Atlassian:
https://www.atlassian.com/blog/announcements/journey-to-cloud
The decision made by Atlassian is part of a larger strategic shift for the Australian software company, which is now referring to itself as a “Cloud-first company”. Additionally, Atlassian will continue its line of data center products: https://www.atlassian.com/enterprise/data-center
However, there is no doubt that Atlassian is serious about now being a “Cloud-first company”, and this means that the prices of the data center products will increase.
We are here to help
Even though the above might make your heart beat faster, we at Netic would like to reassure you that there is nothing to worry about. Three years is a long time. It is more than enough to come up with a solid plan for how your company should deal with the transition from Server to Data Center, Cloud or something different.
Also, Netic has experience and knowhow from a number of the largest and most complex Atlassian setups in Denmark. Because of this we are able to help your company with creating a solid plan that makes sense. Both economically, technically and commercially.
Atlassian Cloud
At present time, Atlassian Cloud has not reached an adequate level of maturity to make the solution a perfect replacement for Atlassian Server. The primary reasons for that are:
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- Many plugins are currently not available for Cloud or despite having the same provider/name the functionality is completely different or limited compared to the Server versions.
- Cloud does not support own domain names (See https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CLOUD-6999)
- The nearest European Atlassian Cloud is currently Ireland or Frankfurt (https://www.atlassian.com/trust/reliability/infrastructure)
- Scripts from Scriptrunner interacting with, for instance, Java API are not supported in Cloud. Additionally, several of the features in the Server version are not available (See https://scriptrunner-docs.connect.adaptavist.com/jiracloud/)
- We expect changes in the Cloud pricing structure. At the moment, the pricing structure is more or less based on “per user”. In the future this might be replaced by or combined with “by usage”.
- It can be a challenge that plugins are actually running in environments outside Atlassian’s own servers. As far as we know, none of these have SLA at the moment (See https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Core-questions/SLA-for-Addons-in-JIRA-Cloud/qaq-p/1332913)
- If you are considering the Atlassian Cloud products, you should definitely read our blog post about cloud services and GDPR. During 2020 important changes have been made which you need to be aware of if you plan on having personal data stored in the Cloud: https://blog.netic.dk/en/personal-data-in-cloud-why-the-schrems-ii-verdict-is-important
However, as has already been pointed out, the product is supported up until 2024 and Cloud is expected to mature significantly, both ensured by Atlassian and the Add-On providers, since the latter will experience a heavy decrease in their area of business.
Because of this, we expect the amount of support related to Server to Cloud migration to increase as we get closer to 2024.
For the time being, we recommend only to migrate simple installations with a few add-ons.
Atlassian Data Center
Data center is a good alternative, if you wish to have full control of all aspects of the solution. From users to infrastructure to upgrades of key products as well as 100 percent control of where the data is placed and who can access it.
Actually, it is more or less already possible to migrate Server to Data center unless you have any add-ons that are not part of the Data center version. If you do, you need to remove them from the installation or ask the provider for a Data center version, if that is possible.
However, keep in mind that migration to Data Center requires additional investments in infrastructure, as Load Balancing, Shared Database and Shared Filesystem is required.
Need any help?
If you aren’t sure how this will impact your business, please reach out to us and we will discuss it. Netic has helped several of Denmark’s largest companies with licensing of Atlassian products as well as setup and usage of, for instance, Jira and Confluence.
At Netic we are happy to assist with consulting, architecture, implementation and operations of your Atlassian solutions. Please reach out us, if you have any questions.