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Atlassian is phasing out Data Center and going all in on Cloud: How to get started with a secure migration

Atlassian has just announced that Data Center will be gradually phased out by 2029and that all future investment will be in the Cloud. This naturally raises questions about security, compliance and how teams can best manage the transition – but there are clear solutions and opportunities.

From 2026, Atlassian introduces Single Tenant Cloud, which provides full control and isolation of your data: you can place data in specific regions, manage encryption keys (Bring Your Own Key / Customer Managed Keys), configure networks and access controls according to your needs – so even the strictest compliance requirements can be met.

Cloud solutions are built on some of the industry’s highest security standards, including ISO 27001, SOC2 and GDPR, and Atlassian’s 2029 timeline gives you time to plan, test and implement the migration at a calm pace – without stress or surprises.

We’ve seen teams that previously spent months on manual maintenance discover how Cloud automates operational tasks, frees up time and enables innovation.

This news is therefore not just a ‘shift’ – it’s an opportunity. With a solid plan, you can free up time, reduce technical debt, scale flexibly, and access new features and AI tools to keep workflows modern and secure.

Your quick overview

Here are the essentials at a glance so you can quickly see what Atlassian’s Cloud initiative means for your organization. We’ll walk you through the opportunities to free up time, reduce technical debt, automate operations, scale flexibly, and ensure teams can focus on innovation – without stress and unexpected surprises:

Cloud is the future: Atlassian is fully committed to the Cloud – all new features, AI and security improvements come here first.
Data Center is phased out: Support will end in March 2029 and the ecosystem will gradually become Cloud-first.
Migration requires planning: Typically 12-24 months from analysis to final deployment.
Security and compliance: Cloud offers ISO 27001, SOC2, GDPR, BYOK, and Isolated Cloud for extra high requirements.
Pitfalls can be avoided: Map apps and integrations early, involve key users, test the entire data set and have rollback plans.
Benefits of Cloud: Less technical debt, automated operations, scalability, rapid access to innovation and freed up time for development.

Atlassian's future-proof cloud strategy: More security, less maintenance

It may feel like an abrupt turn, but the decision to fully focus on Cloud fits well with Atlassian’s history. They’ve shown time and time again that they dare to lead the way – even when it means getting rid of something familiar to create something better.

Atlassian started moving Jira and Confluence to the Cloud over a decade ago, while many of their competitors were still building on-prem solutions. This meant that competitors were falling behind in terms of scalability, frequent updates and access to new features. Atlassian seized the opportunity to offer flexible, global solutions that could adapt quickly to customer needs and support modern agile processes.

Today, Atlassian has over 300,000 Cloud customers worldwide and is the market leader in agile collaboration tools.

Many teams rely heavily on Jira, Confluence and Bitbucket for business-critical tasks, and most alternatives require you to rebuild many workflows and integrations from scratch. Switching to another on-premise product is therefore rarely the most appropriate solution – both in terms of time and resources.

At the same time, technology trends are clearly pointing towards the Cloud. On-premise products typically lag behind in frequent security updates, automation, AI integration and global scaling. Businesses that stay on legacy server-based systems risk building up technical debt that inhibits agility and innovation.

While switching to the Cloud can feel overwhelming, evidence suggests that cloud-based solutions are the best long-term solution if you want to gear your business for the future – more flexible, secure and ready for the next innovations.

"Cloud removes much of the technical debt that typically builds up in the Data Center. It frees up resources so you can focus more on development and less on operations"

Cloud vs. Data Center: Automate operations and scale flexibly

Atlassian’s products are essentially the same whether you’re on Cloud or Data Center, but deployment varies. Cloud is hosted and operated by Atlassian, with automatic updates, built-in security and scalability, while Data Center is hosted internally or in your own data center, where you are responsible for operations, security and updates. Cloud gets new features and AI first, while Data Center primarily receives maintenance updates.

If you’re in the Data Center today, it might be useful to take a sobering look at the differences – and why Atlassian is focusing all new development on the Cloud.

Cloud is built to keep up with the times: it scales automatically, updates continuously and gives you access to new features and security enhancements as soon as they are available.

Data Centers are built for a different time – a world where you had your own servers and could control everything. This gives you control, but also a huge maintenance responsibility and technical debt that grows over time.

Hosting
Updates
Scaling
Security and compliance
Innovation and AI

Popular

Hosted by Atlassian
Automatic and frequent
Flexible, resources adapt automatically
Built-in (ISO, SOC2, GDPR, encryption, etc.)
New features and AI first in the Cloud

Hosted on-premise or in your own data center
Manual and resource-intensive
Requires investment in hardware and operations
Must be handled and documented internally
Minimal further development

Cloud removes much of the technical debt that typically builds up in the Data Center. This frees up resources so you can focus more on development and less on operations.

Technical debt occurs when old setups and manual processes are left behind because they “still work”. At Data Center, we typically see it as old apps, custom configurations and scripts that no one fully understands anymore – but that everything depends on.

The results of migrations to Cloud speak for themselves

Atlassian has invested heavily in Cloud in recent years, focusing on security, scalability, compliance and AI-powered collaboration. The results are clear:

99% of Atlassian customers are already using or migrating to Cloud
Customers report up to 300% ROI after migration, through consolidation of solutions and efficiencies gained
Teams deliver value 80% faster and shorten project lifecycles

Key milestones for the Data Center phase-out

The fact that Atlassian has announced the phase-out well in advance allows you to plan calmly, without
last-minute firefighting .

Migration often takes longer than you think. From initial analysis to moving and validating everything is typically 12-24 months – especially if you have many users, apps and integrations. That’s why it’s a good idea to start early while there’s still flexibility in the schedule.

The most important dates you should know:

December 16, 2025: New Data Center apps can no longer be submitted to the Marketplace
March 30, 2026: Sales of new Data Center licenses stop
March 30, 2028: Last day to renew and extend existing licenses
March 28, 2029: Data Center support ends for most customers

Isolated Cloud - for those with special requirements for control and security

The earlier you start planning, the more controlled and risk-free the migration will be. Talk to our Atlassian Cloud specialists for guidance on mapping, strategy and next stepsWe often hear the concern: “If we go to the Cloud, we lose control of our data.”

It makes sense, but it’s actually one of the most persistent misconceptions. Imagine an IT manager who still padlocks the data center every night. It feels safe, but the servers lack automatic monitoring, redundant power and global security monitoring.

Today, it’s often safer not to do everything yourself – especially when it comes to business-critical data.

Atlassian Cloud is built with some of the highest security standards in the industry: ISO 27001, SOC2, GDPR compliance, and the ability to self-manage encryption keys (BYOK).

From 2026, the Isolated Cloud – a solution for organizations with extra high security and compliance requirements. Each customer will have their own dedicated infrastructure, physically and logically separated from other customers.

This means you get:

No shared resources – full isolation of data and systems
Custom encryption, network configuration and access control options
Data can be placed in a specific region (to fulfill data residency requirements)
Supports very strict safety standards (e.g. FedRAMP High, DoD IL5)
Particularly suitable for finance, healthcare, defense and public sector
Even customers in air gapped environments will have the option of an Atlassian solution

In short, you get the best of both worlds: the control of the Data Center and the flexibility, innovation and automation of the Cloud.

Questions about phasing out or Isolated Cloud?

As an Atlassian Platinum Enterprise Solution Partner, we are ready to advise you on how to get the most out of your Atlassian products

How to plan a migration that works in practice

When we talk about a ‘migration’, it sounds technical – but in practice it’s about something quite mundane: moving everything you work with on a daily basis to the Cloud… without stopping operations, losing data or disrupting anyone unnecessarily.

Many of the customers we’ve helped are quickly seeing the benefits: fewer operational tasks, more robust infrastructure and much easier access to new features.

It may seem daunting, but with the right plan and support, a migration can be completed far more smoothly than many expect. But the organizations that succeed leave behind a more scalable setup with no technical debt – and the energy to continue developing instead of patching old solutions.

And yes… it can feel like a lot. You have to move systems that you can hardly do without for a single day.

But that’s exactly why a good plan makes all the difference: it provides an overview and peace of mind, making migration both safe and valuable – instead of stressful and unpredictable.

A good migration process can look like this:

Analysis and planning
Map users, projects, entitlements, apps and integrations. Identify dependencies and obsolete elements. The better the groundwork, the fewer surprises.
Strategy and design
Decide if you want to migrate all at once or in stages. Make a realistic schedule and align resources. The most important thing here is ownership: all relevant teams should be on board from the start.
Setting up the Cloud environment
Create users, security policies and apps. Provide networks, domains and SSO integrations.
Test migration and validation
Move a sample of data to a test environment. Let key users validate that functionality and workflows work. Use the failures as learning and repeat the test.
Final migration and commissioning
Plan for downtime and inform users well in advance. Monitor operations closely during the first days.
Retrospective optimization and governance
Plan ongoing maintenance, training and governance so that the cloud solution doesn’t grow uncontrollably.

"Most migration projects don't stumble over technology - they stumble over people"

The skills to ensure a smooth migration

When you migrate to the Cloud, it’s rarely the technology that causes problems – it’s the people and processes around it. To make the migration smooth, you need the right competencies in place: project management, IT architecture, systems understanding, data management and DevOps expertise.

An experienced migration expert can help you spot the typical pitfalls, plan how to minimize risk, and keep the process structured and manageable. This means you can focus on your work while the migration is done safely and efficiently.

With the right expertise on your side, migration becomes more than just a technical exercise – it becomes an opportunity to clean up, manage complex workflows and set your teams up for success in the Cloud.

Your Atlassian Cloud Migration specialist

We are certified specialists in Atlassian Cloud migrations and help you move from server or data center to the cloud in a secure and simple way, so you don’t have to worry about operations and maintenance and can focus on driving results.

We extend Atlassian’s migration framework with our own experience from many successful projects. Our certified consultants ensure that the solution is customized to your needs – and that it works in practice, not just on paper.

Finish your cloud migration with confidence - without downtime and stress

An experienced migration expert can help you map your current setup, create a migration strategy and prevent unexpected pitfalls – making the transition to the Cloud both safe and efficient.

Avoid chaos: How to steer clear of the classic migration traps

Most migration projects don’t stumble over technology – they stumble over people.

Not because anyone is doing anything wrong, but because we humans tend to underestimate how much coordination, preparation and alignment of expectations is actually required. As a result, planning goes awry and even the best technology quickly becomes a scapegoat.

If you want to avoid deadlines slipping and shoulders sagging, start by knowing the classic pitfalls – and how to avoid them:

The most common pitfalls and solutions:

Underestimating the time to map apps and integrations: Start this analysis early and prioritize the most business-critical ones first. Many apps need to be replaced with new Cloud versions.
Lack of business and key user involvement: Identify key users early and involve them in both design and testing. They know the workflows and dependencies best.
No full testing of data and workflows before go-live: Plan at least one full test migration to catch errors early – before everything goes live.
No rollback plan: Make sure you can roll back if problems arise during the migration itself. This creates peace of mind for both IT and the business.

Start planning today - and reap the benefits faster

It may feel early to start, but the reality is that companies that start planning now will have a much more controlled and smooth transition to the Cloud.

The earlier you map, test and clean up old workflows, the faster the benefits can be realized: less technical debt, more flexibility and time for innovation.

Get help getting started with Cloud migration

The earlier you start planning, the more controlled and risk-free the migration will be. Talk to our Atlassian Cloud specialists for guidance on mapping, strategy and next steps