On September 10, 2025, Atlassian officially announced the end of life (EOL) for its Data Center products. This has been expected for a while, as we have seen the removal of data center certifications and clear indicators that Atlassian is focusing on its Cloud platform and has little interest in data centers.
Despite these indicators, many customers have been caught off guard and are looking for options to handle this change. In this article, I will try to answer the most pressing questions.
What do we know about Atlassian Data Center end of life?
The announcement was made on September 8, 2025, across all channels. A blog post about this shift mentions that 99% of all Atlassian customers are in the cloud. While this may be technically accurate, it might not fully reflect the situation when considering all free products used for testing. The blog post comes across as a sales post and offers limited explanation beyond stating “the cloud is awesome.” It does provide resources and promises support for data center customers transitioning to the cloud, which shows an effort to assist during this change, which is the common theme of the announcements.
There was also a very brief blog post in the developer blog with a short and vague motivation for why this is happening. This was accompanied by an announcement in the developer’s forum, which is a little more informative, I think. The links to these blog posts and announcements are at the end of this article.
The communications have been scattered around in different channels, which can make them less clear than intended, which is why we are summarizing them here for clarity. In short, the information provides the following:
- December 16, 2025 – new DC apps can no longer be submitted to the Marketplace.
- March 30, 2026 – DC license sales and app sales will end for new customers.
- March 30, 2028 – DC license expansions, sales, and app sales will end for existing customers.
- March 30, 2029 – DC subscriptions will expire, and the environment will reach end of life.
Bitbucket is getting special treatment
For those of you who use Bitbucket Data Center, there will be an exception to make this shift less painful. While this is good news for Bitbucket customers, you should expect that Bitbucket Data Center will also be removed shortly.
For Bitbucket Data Center customers, we understand your source code is particularly sensitive. To give you maximum flexibility, we’re launching a new license option that will give you access to both Bitbucket Data Center and Bitbucket Cloud, allowing you to operate in whichever environment your business prefers beyond March 2029. In addition, Bitbucket Data Center apps will continue to be sold through the Marketplace.
What choices do you have as a Data Center customer?
As an Atlassian customer with Data Center products, your options are limited to migration to a new tool before March 30, 2029. That is because data center products will enter a read-only state on that date, and you will no longer be able to use the data center products.
Your migration options are to migrate to Atlassian cloud products, and there you have three options:
- Atlassian Standard Cloud,
- Atlassian Isolated Cloud,
- Atlassian Government Cloud.
If you are unsure if one of these cloud options will be able to fulfill your requirements, both in terms of internal and legal compliance and security, then please reach out to us, and we will help you investigate your options here. We have extensive experience in regulated industries, and that experience is not limited to the Atlassian platform.
You can also migrate to another product, but we advise that you consider that very carefully due to the high impact on your organization. Your best option here is to discuss options with a partner who is an expert in Atlassian tools, ways of working, integrations, and, of course, multiple alternative tools that could be suitable as a replacement. Sii has this expertise, and we are more than happy to consult with you to see if this is the path you are considering.
Atlassian has services to help you transition
Atlassian has created new services to assist organizations transitioning to the cloud. These range from self-help for small organizations and two Atlassian-led programs to transition your organization to the cloud.
- For customers with fewer than 1000 users, Atlassian offers dedicated self-service tools designed to make upgrading as smooth as possible.
- For organizations with more than 1,000 users, Atlassian offers a new complimentary Atlassian FastShift Program that provides a strategic partnership and dramatically accelerates timelines (from 12 – 16 months to just 2 – 6 months).
- For customers with over 5,000 users, Atlassian’s Solution Design Acceleration program will support the most complex use cases with a dedicated partnership to plan and execute a transformation aligned to your company’s business objectives.
These programs are good options if you have a relatively clean Data Center installation and are dedicated to moving to the cloud. Take advantage of them as soon as possible. If you have a messy data center solution and do not have your integrations in order, then I would carefully consider whether a migration is the right call.
In some cases, it is a better option not to migrate but to start fresh on the Cloud and just migrate what you need for compliance reasons. We at Sii have done several of these, and as experts in the Atlassian cloud platform, we can also guide you to success with a green field approach.
Regardless of what option you choose, you will need to dedicate a lot of time from your organization to change management. From a technical perspective, the best option is to start fresh and not migrate, but that puts a lot of effort on the change management side, as you need to do a lot of work to redefine ways of working. If you, on the other hand, just migrate the data, then you will have less effort on the organization, but you will probably suffer from an unstable platform that you will have to spend years cleaning up.
The best option is always to contact Atlassian and a partner to get a review of your platform so you can make proper decisions based on what is best for your organization, both in the short term and in the long term. No matter your path towards the cloud, Atlassian and partners like Sii will ensure you get there safely, efficiently, and as easily as possible without compromising areas like security and legal compliance.
3 years is not as long as you might think
March 28, 2029, might seem like a very distant date with more than three years to complete a migration to the cloud or find new alternatives. In reality, though, it is not that much time. A normal migration takes 6-12+ months, and if you want to do a green field shift, then it can take even longer. The time required to technically move data and configurations, however, is the smallest change for most organizations.
What most companies do not realize is that migrating from a data center to the cloud is not just a massive shift in technology but much more so in working ways. Change management is very important, and many organizations will need to change internal processes as they transition from a fairly featureless data center setup with few new features every year to a cloud setup with a modern platform that delivers new functionality often.
The Atlassian Cloud platform also offers several defined standard processes, like the Incident process, and with the massive shift for Confluence in the last few years, it now offers a ton of new ways of working. In short, it is very likely that whatever processes, or lack thereof, you have today will benefit significantly from a rework when you move to the cloud. This is a non-technical shift that many organizations fail to recognize, and as a result, their cloud usage is less effective than it can be.
Many organizations are also stuck with old onion setups with layers upon layers of old and forgotten configurations that have never been documented. Security is often poor, with no control over the APIs or scripts connecting to them. This means a lot of time will be spent trying to clean up and prepare a data center platform to even be able to migrate. Since the platform is in use, this can mean years of cleaning, or you just have to push everything and deal with the fallout after the migration. That tends to lead to performance issues, data issues, and a lot of frustration trying to untangle decades of neglect and mismanagement due to a lack of authority and strategies.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and that is clearly visible in many old data center platforms.
So don’t wait too long. The longer you wait, the harder it will be to find experienced partners who can guide you through your options, help you move to the cloud, or find new alternatives to replace your current Atlassian platform.
Don’t just focus on the downside; consider the upside
When big shifts like this happen, especially when you get forced to make changes you had no planned for or have a budget for, then of course you will get annoyed and frustrated. It is a natural reaction to change, and in our hectic times, where finding funds and time make big changes like this can feel like climbing a mountain backward with no equipment, there are upsides to this.
Over time, all systems become bogged down with technical debt and bad decisions, leading to unnecessary complexity and often performance issues. Many organizations suffer from fragmentation of work, where teams have built their own silos that are now harming the organization and costing a lot of money every day.
Making a massive change to a new platform can provide the opportunity many organizations need to get some of those things out of the way by establishing strategies and governance that aim towards a secure, legally compliant, and usable solution for the whole organization, not just some of it.
This is by no means an easy task, but if you are struggling with bad practices and technical decisions that are costing your organization valuable time, causing micromanagement, lack of visibility, or making valuable deliveries difficult, then this can be a great opportunity for an organization reboot.
Many data center platforms are built like patchworks when it comes to integrations and reporting, looking like spiderwebs of connections to systems that are poorly documented, if at all. This makes this a great opportunity to restructure and build proper strategies so you can take advantage of the new security features in the Cloud and define non-functional requirements for data in all projects so you can get accurate, reliable, and, above all, valuable reporting.
I have seen several cases where organizations can reduce a lot of cost just because their old setups no longer have to rely on marketplace apps, as the new functionality in Cloud matches or even surpasses them. You can also consider the cost and effort of hosting, monitoring, and, of course, upgrading both the Atlassian platform and all the surrounding systems.
There are many, many things that add value when moving from a Data Center to a Cloud, and if you are interested in learning more, just reach out to Atlassian and a reliable partner like us at Sii.
With preparations and good support from Atlassian and a partner like Sii, your journey to the cloud should be a smooth one. The end of the Data Center is the beginning of a new journey, and I am confident it will be an amazing journey that adds more value to your organization.
Actions to take right now for Atlassian data center customers
If you are an Atlassian data center customer, the countdown has already begun. You need to consider your options carefully and consider the implications of those options for your organization. These are the first steps I would advise you to take to decide what path to take to be ready for the shutdown of the Atlassian data center products.
- Reach out to your Atlassian representative today. If you do not have one, submit a ticket to support and ask for one, or reach out to an Atlassian partner, and we will help you connect with Atlassian.
- If you do not already work with a Partner, reach out to one today. Even if you have an in-house team for Atlassian, it is always good to have a partner connected if you need their expertise later.
- Assess Cloud options to see if a path is available. Work with Atlassian and your selected Atlassian partner to assess which cloud options are possible for your organization. This will be the basis for your financial and technical assessment.
- Conduct a migration assessment project. This will help you assess the options and define the plan for migrating. It will also help you fund the migration internally and plan the execution of the migration in your portfolio.
- Join one of the Atlassian migration services. Take advantage of the services Atlassian provides and evaluate whether you need them later. As we approach the end-of-life date, it is probably easier to leave the programs than join.
Doing these steps today will ensure that you have the support and a proper assessment. This will allow you to ensure both funding and execution of the migration well in advance and prepare the organization for this shift.
Sii is a migration expert with experience from many complicated migrations
If you are considering migrating to the Cloud, then please contact us for consultation. At Sii, we have experience from many migration projects of varied complexity, and we will help you analyze your situation and provide you with a plan for making your transition to the cloud successful, cost-efficient, and safe.
Sii is not only a Platinum Atlassian partner, but we have several branches with dedicated experts in change management, project management, and even alternative platforms, should you need to leave Atlassian for something else. We have experts in network and operations, and dedicated teams specifically for sectors like Banking, Healthcare, and many others, where we work specifically with the challenges for those industries. We are here to help you successfully migrate to a new and better future.
Official sources for the announcements from Atlassian
- Ascend to the cloud: The next chapter for Atlassian and our customers – Work Life by Atlassian
- From Data Center to Cloud: The Next Chapter for Marketplace Apps – Work Life by Atlassian
- From Data Center to Cloud: The Next Chapter for Marketplace Apps
- Introducing Atlassian Government Cloud and Atlassian Isolated Cloud – Work Life by Atlassian
- Cloud transformation resources | Atlassian
- Accelerate Cloud Success with Atlassian FastShift | Atlassian
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