Atlassian is doubling down on a cloud-first strategy. The company has announced the phased retirement of its Data Center products, a major change that will unfold over the next three years. This decision is driven by Atlassian’s confidence that the cloud can deliver greater innovation, performance, and collaboration for customers. In fact, 99% of Atlassian’s 300,000+ customers already run on Atlassian’s cloud platform, and nearly all new customers choose cloud from day one. For organizations still using Atlassian’s Data Center products, this news means a cloud migration is on the horizon but Atlassian is providing plenty of time and support to make the transition successful. Atlassian’s new “Ascend” initiative will guide every customer through their upgrade journey with a comprehensive support program. In this blog, we’ll break down why Atlassian is making this move, the benefits of Atlassian Cloud, key dates you need to know, and how both Atlassian and partners like Atlas Bench will ensure your transition is smooth.
Over a decade ago, Atlassian’s self-hosted Server and Data Center options made sense. They gave companies full control over hosting Jira, Confluence, and other tools in their own environment. However, times have changed. To unleash the full potential of teams, Atlassian believes the future lies in the cloud. Data Center products can no longer keep up with the pace of innovation needed to help organizations stay competitive. The cloud platform is where Atlassian can roll out cutting-edge features much faster and more effectively than in on-premises versions. In short, Atlassian sees the cloud as the only way to deliver on its core promise to customers: supercharge teamwork, drive faster innovation, and continuously improve the user experience.
From Atlassian’s perspective, the cloud isn’t a limitation it’s a massive upgrade for customers. Cloud products receive new capabilities regularly without the overhead of manual upgrades. They connect teams and data in ways that simply aren’t possible with isolated on-prem setups. Moving to Atlassian Cloud means instant access to a platform that is always improving, highly scalable, and ready to integrate advanced technologies like artificial intelligence. In the next section, we summarize some of the most impactful benefits that Atlassian Cloud offers right now.
Unified, powerful search across all your tools: By moving to Atlassian Cloud, teams get immediate access to world-class enterprise search across Atlassian products and even integrated third-party apps. Finding information becomes faster and easier across the entire organization.
An AI teammate at your service: Atlassian’s cloud platform introduces Rovo, an AI-powered virtual teammate. Rovo can assist with smart suggestions, answer questions by searching your knowledge base, and automate routine tasks helping your teams work smarter with AI in the loop.
No more data silos with the Teamwork Graph: The cloud breaks down silos that existed in separate Data Center tools. Atlassian’s Teamwork Graph connects teams, projects, and data across all Atlassian apps. That means richer context for every piece of work and better collaboration across different departments and tools.
Faster delivery through integration, automation, and analytics: In the cloud, Atlassian products seamlessly integrate with each other and with thousands of marketplace apps. You can automate workflows with AI-driven rules and bots, reducing manual work. Robust built-in analytics let you make data-driven decisions. All of this accelerates project delivery and helps teams stay ahead of the competition.
Organizations of all sizes from lean start-ups to global enterprises are already reporting faster time to value and lower costs after migrating to Atlassian Cloud. They’re also unlocking new ways of working, like real-time collaboration and AI-assisted development, that are becoming essential for staying competitive. Atlassian’s goal now is to bring every remaining customer into this cloud-powered future so no one is left behind on legacy platforms.
A common question we hear is, “Can Atlassian Cloud handle our business? We have strict requirements.” Atlassian’s answer today is a resounding yes. Over the past few years, Atlassian has invested heavily to ensure its cloud platform meets the needs of even the largest and most regulated enterprises. No matter your industry, scale, or complexity, Atlassian Cloud is ready for you and the proof is in the numbers and features. Many of Atlassian’s largest customers have already made the jump or are in the process. In fact, over 75% of Atlassian’s most complex and highly regulated customers are now on a path to cloud. The platform’s scalability has grown by leaps and bounds. A single Confluence Cloud site can already support 150,000 users, and a single Jira Cloud instance can handle 100,000 users, with performance and reliability maintained at enterprise standards. This level of scale far exceeds what most organizations will ever need, giving you headroom to grow.
Security and compliance are also front and center. Atlassian Cloud offers advanced data protection and meets an array of industry standards. Over the last year, Atlassian expanded data residency options to cover more regions and six additional marketplace apps, helping companies meet local compliance rules. For government and highly regulated sectors, Atlassian launched a Government Cloud offering that is FedRAMP Moderate authorized, ensuring U.S. federal agencies and others can confidently use Atlassian Cloud. An even more stringent FedRAMP High environment is in the works and targeted to be ready well before Data Center products reach end-of-life. To address unique enterprise needs, Atlassian introduced Atlassian Isolated Cloud, a single-tenant cloud option. This means your organization can have a dedicated cloud instance isolated from other customers, providing an extra layer of control and peace of mind for those with the strictest policies. Atlassian is even exploring multi-cloud capabilities through a partnership with Google Cloud in the future, customers will have the flexibility to operate across multiple cloud providers for resilience or data governance reasons.
Atlassian’s cloud platform is no longer just for small or mid-sized teams. It’s a world-class platform that can meet complex requirements around scale, security, data residency, and reliability. And it’s continually improving: Atlassian’s public roadmap shows ongoing enhancements in areas like performance, compliance, and AI-powered features. The bottom line is that you can feel confident about moving to Atlassian Cloud even if you have massive user counts or rigorous regulatory standards the platform is up to the task.
While Atlassian is providing a long runway for this transition, it’s important to mark the key dates for the Data Center end-of-life timeline. This multi-year phase-out is designed to give customers ample time to evaluate options and migrate on their own schedule, with Atlassian’s support every step of the way.
March 30, 2026: Last date for new customers to purchase Atlassian Data Center licenses or new Data Center marketplace app subscriptions. After this date, any new Atlassian customer will only be able to choose Cloud Data Center will no longer be sold to new clients.
March 30, 2028: Last date for existing customers to expand or acquire new Data Center licenses and app licenses. If you’re already using Data Center, this is the final cutoff for things like increasing user counts, buying additional products, or adding new app licenses under Data Center. Beyond this point, no new license purchases or upgrades for Data Center will be available.
March 28, 2029: End of life for Atlassian Data Center products. All active Data Center product licenses will officially expire. Your Data Center instances will become read-only, meaning you can no longer update issues, pages, or content essentially freezing the environment. This is the date by which Atlassian expects all customers to have migrated to Cloud or an alternative solution.
Keep in mind that “read-only” after March 2029 means you’ll still have access to your data, but you won’t be able to create or edit anything on your Data Center products. Essentially, March 2029 is the point at which Atlassian’s on-premises era truly ends. Knowing these dates now gives your organization a clear timeline for planning. Even if 2029 feels far off, large-scale migrations can take significant time and resources so it’s wise to start evaluating your path to cloud sooner rather than later.
Atlassian understands that moving from on-prem Data Center to the cloud is a significant change. Different organizations will have different needs and timelines, and there may be challenges along the way. That’s why Atlassian is launching Atlassian Ascend, a program dedicated to guiding customers through this transformation with flexible support and tools. Whether you’re a small team or a large enterprise, Atlassian Ascend is designed to meet you where you are and ensure you can plan your move to cloud with confidence.
Ongoing support until 2029: First and foremost, Atlassian is not abandoning Data Center customers in the interim. For the next three years, Atlassian will continue to provide technical support for Data Center products. You’ll continue to receive critical security updates and bug fixes as needed. Atlassian is also making sure that any connectors or bridges between Data Center and Cloud will remain compatible and supported. This means you can start using Atlassian cloud products in parallel with your Data Center tools to unlock cloud-only benefits early, even before fully migrating.
Tailored migration assistance by customer size: Every Atlassian customer will have a slightly different migration journey, so Atlassian has created different paths and resources depending on your scale:
Self-service tools for organizations < 1,000 users: If you have a smaller deployment, Atlassian provides dedicated self-service migration tools and detailed documentation to make your upgrade as smooth as possible. These tools can help you assess your apps for cloud compatibility, migrate data in phases, and test along the way. Many mid-sized companies have already used Atlassian’s free Cloud Migration Assistants to successfully move Jira, Confluence, and other products with minimal disruption.
FastTrack for enterprises > 1,000 users: For larger organizations, Atlassian is introducing the Atlassian FastShift Program. This is a complimentary, hands-on migration partnership aimed at dramatically accelerating the timeline of complex migrations. With FastShift, Atlassian’s migration experts will work closely with your team to plan and execute your move to cloud in as little as 2–6 months a process that might otherwise take 12–18 months if you went alone. This program is all about removing roadblocks quickly, whether it’s optimizing data migration, providing temporary licenses for testing, or ensuring your critical apps have cloud equivalents.
Dedicated support for > 5,000 users or highly complex cases: For the very largest enterprises and those with especially intricate setups, Atlassian offers the Solution Design Acceleration program. This is a bespoke, white-glove service where Atlassian assigns a dedicated team of solution architects and migration engineers to your project. They will help design a migration strategy tailored to your business objectives and technical requirements. This could include detailed planning around data architecture, performance tuning in the cloud, change management for your users, and more. Essentially, Atlassian will partner with you to ensure even the most complex use cases can be moved to cloud successfully, on a timeline that aligns with your organization’s goals.
Addressing special cases and extended options: Atlassian is also acknowledging that a few customers may have unique situations that call for extra flexibility. One example is Bitbucket Data Center customers. Atlassian knows that source code repositories are among the most sensitive assets, and some companies might not be ready to fully migrate code hosting by 2029. To accommodate this, Atlassian will introduce a new dual licensing option for Bitbucket: it will give customers access to both Bitbucket Data Center and Bitbucket Cloud beyond 2029. In practice, this means if you need to keep an on-prem Bitbucket running a bit longer, you can do so while also leveraging Bitbucket Cloud for new projects all under a single license arrangement.
Additionally, Atlassian has committed to extended maintenance by exception for certain Data Center customers past the 2029 end-of-life. This is essentially a safety net: if your organization truly cannot transition by 2029 due to regulatory or other critical blockers, Atlassian is willing to work with you on a case-by-case basis. Extended maintenance would allow continued critical security updates and support for your Data Center instances for a limited time after official end-of-life. The goal isn’t to encourage anyone to delay migration unnecessarily, but rather to ensure no customer is left unsupported due to circumstances outside their control.
The overarching message of Atlassian Ascend is that you are not alone in this journey. Atlas Bench will be there to assist with planning, tools, and hands-on help to make your cloud migration successful. This collaborative, flexible approach means you can transition at the pace that makes sense for your business while knowing expert help is available to tackle any challenges along the way.
Assess your current Atlassian setup: Take stock of your Atlassian environment. Which products and versions are you running in Data Center? What apps and custom integrations are in use? Understanding your inventory and usage will help in planning the move.
Explore Atlassian’s resources and migration tools: Atlassian provides free Cloud Migration Assistants for Jira, Confluence, and Bitbucket. Start by reviewing Atlassian’s migration documentation and running the assessment tools they can highlight potential app compatibility issues or data that might need cleaning before migration.
Plan around the key dates: With the timeline in mind, sketch out a high-level plan. For example, decide when you’d ideally like to complete your migration. If you anticipate needing to expand your user count or buy any new app licenses on Data Center, plan to do that before March 2028. Having a timeline ensures you’re not caught off guard by the cutoff dates.
Consider a phased migration or pilot: Many organizations find it useful to migrate one project or a subset of users first as a pilot. You can run a small instance in cloud and get feedback from users, while still operating your main Data Center instance. This phased approach, supported by Atlassian’s tools, can reduce risk and build confidence before a full cutover.
Engage experts for a smooth transition: Finally, don’t hesitate to seek help. Atlassian’s own FastShift and enterprise programs are there for you, and working with Atlas Bench can make a world of difference. We’ve helped many clients navigate similar migrations from evaluating readiness, to hands-on data migration, to user training on new cloud features. Having certified experts by your side can accelerate the process and ensure that nothing critical falls through the cracks.
By taking these steps early, you’ll put your organization in a strong position to make the most of Atlassian’s cloud-first future. The benefits in productivity, innovation, and ease of maintenance will be well worth the effort of migrating.
Atlassian’s shift to the cloud marks an exciting new chapter for all of its customers. This transition is about much more than just changing where your software runs it’s about unlocking a platform that will keep evolving to help your teams do their best work. With clear timelines, a robust support program in Atlassian Ascend, and plenty of resources, the path to cloud is navigable for everyone. Now is the time to start envisioning what your organization can achieve with Atlassian’s cloud products enhanced by AI, seamless integrations, and enterprise-grade performance.