As early as October 2020, Atlassian had announced that they would soon end support for their server products. The first phase of their plan was to end new server license sales by February 2021. Server renewals and upgrades were still available to customers, though.
The second phase is the upcoming end of support for server products, due on February 15, 2024.
What does this mean for Atlassian server customers?
Post February 15th, server customers stand to lose access to technical support, security updates, and bug fixes for vulnerabilities on their Atlassian server products and applications.
To put it more plainly, the server edition will become redundant soon.
So, what does this mean for you?
In this blog, we will take a look at the impact of the end of server support, what is Atlassian’s rationale behind this move, and how you can stay supported during and after the transition.
What does end-of-support mean for Atlassian server customers?
Come February 15, 2024, Atlassian will no longer officially support the server edition of the following products:
- JIRA Software
- JIRA Service Management
- JIRA Align
- Confluence
- Bitbucket
- Bamboo
- Other server apps
While the cessation of Atlassian server support does not mean the immediate discontinuation of your current Atlassian server products, it does impact your product support in a big way.
For instance, after 12 A.M. PST on February 15, 2024, your Atlassian solution partners and Marketplace partners will no longer provide technical support for any issues.
In other words, if you encounter issues with how your server products function, you will have to deal with them on your own!
Security updates and patches will also no longer be provided, which are critical to help protect your business from threats and vulnerabilities.
To top it off, customers will not get any bug fixes if they encounter critical vulnerabilities. As explained in our myth-busting webinar, Atlassian has put a range of programs in place (such as the Security Detection Program and the Bug Bounty Program) to discover and neutralise destructive vulnerabilities. However, Atlassian will no longer offer this service to customers continuing on server editions.
But why is Atlassian ending server support?
The straightforward answer is—Atlassian would like to encourage server customers to migrate their on-premise ecosystem to the Atlassian cloud.
Why the cloud, though?
This is because Atlassian has taken giant strides in the last couple of years to take their product offerings to the next level by integrating their services with the cloud. Atlassian prioritises streamlined administration, instant scalability, and quicker time to value with its cloud-ready products and are currently on the path of leveraging AI, automation, and machine learning to create a world-class cloud experience for their customers.
Moreover, an Atlassian cloud migration comes with a plethora of benefits. Some of these include more reliability, enhanced accessibility, increased scalability, improved security, and reduced costs.
And unlike server customers, Atlassian cloud customers will be able to avail uninterrupted technical support from Atlassian and continued access to security updates and bug fixes.
Is it absolutely necessary to move to the Atlassian cloud?
This can be a tricky one to answer. Although it’s important to consider that in a few weeks, server apps will no longer be supported on the Atlassian Marketplace and that organisations won’t be able to publish server app updates or versions, switching to the cloud involves understanding its pros and cons.
While adopting the cloud can help you reduce the cost of operation and maintenance and integrate cloud apps for a seamless workflow, you might have to contend with a time-consuming migration process.
Corptec Technology Partners can help you move to the Atlassian cloud in record time by assessing your requirements and analysing your current tools.
For those not comfortable with migrating to the cloud, Atlassian offers the option to migrate to the Atlassian Data Centre. Atlassian Data Centre offers a self-hosted solution with the benefits of high availability, scalability, and enhanced performance that would suit organisations with specific infrastructure requirements or regulatory constraints.
In either case, it would be wise to consider switching from a server edition to the cloud or the Data Centre, as the implications for server edition users might be negative. Not only will server customers miss out on product enhancements and new features but they will clearly be at a disadvantage in comparison to teams utilising the latest versions of Jira, JSM, or Confluence.
Moreover, there are compatibility issues that server customers may have to contend with. As technology progresses, third-party integrations and other software that your Atlassian tools depend on may release updates that are incompatible with the outdated server edition. This could lead to functionality issues and hinder your team’s productivity.
Confidently planning your Atlassian migration requires the expertise of a seasoned Atlassian Solution partner like Corptec. However, let’s first look at the points you need to consider while planning a transition from your current server edition.
7 major considerations for migrating from server to the Atlassian cloud or data centre
In order to ensure that your transition from a server edition is as seamless and successful as possible, you need to factor in the following aspects:
1. Timeline
The first major consideration, of course, is the approaching timeline for the eventual end of support from Atlassian. As shifting to the Atlassian cloud or the Data Centre is the only way you can stay supported after the February deadline, we recommend that you choose a path based on your organisation’s size and complexity. This will help you decide on the best migration strategy for your organisation.
2. Server Alternatives
The obvious alternatives for Atlassian’s server products are the Cloud and the Data Centre. While the Atlassian Cloud enables greater ROI, accelerated productivity, and eliminates the overhead of server maintenance, Atlassian’s Data Centre helps you meet your organisation’s unique needs with flexible infrastructure choices and controls.
3. Current Setup Review
The next step is to conduct a comprehensive review of your existing Atlassian server environment. You’ll need to identify customisations, integrations, and plugins that may need adjustments during a migration to the cloud or the data centre.
4. Training Requirements
As you evaluate the necessity of a cloud or a data centre migration, it is important to keep your team informed about the upcoming changes, and provide training sessions if needed. For example, helping key users get familiarised with Atlassian’s Cloud Migration Assistants for Jira and Confluence will minimise disruptions during the transition.
5. Data Backup
An important consideration before migrating your instances would be to ensure that your data is properly backed up. Partnering with a reputed cloud data protection provider can help you avoid data loss, simplify data backup, safeguard your applications, and ensure that business runs as usual.
6. Compliance Requirements
Although it is well-known that Atlassian has invested heavily in attaining and remaining compliant with a range of different standards, different industries and regions tend to have different compliance requirements. It is, therefore, important that you conduct your own due diligence to ensure that Atlassian has attained the certifications relevant to your industry or business area before deciding on a migration.
7. Cloud/Data Residency Myths
The most important step to probably consider is to get your misconceptions and fears about migrating to the Atlassian cloud or data centre clarified. Whether you’re worried about the safety of data on the cloud or feel that you have no say in where your data can be hosted, we encourage you to check out the answers our Atlassian experts give to these 5 most prevalent myths on Atlassian cloud security, compliance, and data residency.
The clock is ticking! What next?
If you’re still unsure about whether and how you should make a switch, let Corptec make things easy for you!
As a Gold Solution partner since 2018, Corptec Technology Partners has helped organisations across Australia navigate their Atlassian journey in a scalable and flexible way. Our solution consultants come with extensive knowledge and experience dealing with Atlassian product suites, and can help you overcome any cloud or data centre migration challenge, regardless of the project size.
The team at Corptec can help you assess your cloud or Data Centre migration readiness by offering you a free assessment of your current instances. This includes a detailed instance-by-instance audit of your organisation’s usage of Atlassian licenses, based on your projects and configurations. It helps you review your license usage by documenting the exact number of product licenses being used and analysing if there are redundant licenses being paid for. Doing this assessment can help you achieve significant savings for your team.
Post the free audit, if you do decide on a migration, we can provide you with hands-on support and manage your migration needs end-to-end—starting from the planning phase to the post-migration maintenance phase. Being Atlassian’s select partner gives us access to exclusive benefits (including discounts, free trials, and more) that you can avail when you partner with us.
In other words, we can help you:
- Zero-in on the right migration strategy for your business needs
- Enable you to correctly assess your application and on-premise landscape
- Support you in doing a site clean-up
- Assist you during the preparation and testing phase
- Execute a running migration with minimum hiccups
You can also consider moving to the Data Centre in the interim and decide on a cloud migration once your team is completely ready. Whatever be the case, feel free to give us a call or book a meeting with our expert. We will be there to assist you—whatever your choice!
Book a walkthrough meeting with our Atlassian expert today
