There’s a lot of work to be done for existing Atlassian Server customers. Atlassian has recently announced the End of Life of server products: from February 2, 2021, no new Server licenses will be sold and from February 2, 2024, Atlassian will no longer provide support or maintenance for any Server product. The announcement, although shocking, is a critical business move that the company is taking to align itself with the pace of Cloud adoption. 

So, what does this mean for existing customers? What do they need to do to prepare for this change? Read on to find out! 

Options available for organizations using Atlassian Server 

Atlassian Server end of life is a crucial turning point for organizations that have long been leveraging Server products to manage their daily software delivery operations. Atlassian’s decision to stop the sale of Server products, eventually followed by no support, means organizations have to take quick and well-planned action. Here are the options available for organizations who depend on Server products: 

1. Stay on Server for the time being – till you figure out what direction you want to take.
2. Migrate your Atlassian Server applications to Atlassian Data Center 
3. Migrate your Atlassian Server applications to Atlassian Cloud
4. Migrate to a hybrid environment by moving some applications to Atlassian Data Center and some to Atlassian Cloud 

5 things to know when migrating from Atlassian Server 

As Atlassian Server approaches End of Life, organizations are under immense pressure to plan the migration process. However, given that any migration needs to be done with careful planning, it is natural to have hundreds of questions in your mind.  

To make things easier, we have curated a list of 5 things you need to know when migrating from Atlassian Server: 

1. You don’t need to migrate all the instances in one go: Despite the limited time frame in which organizations need to move applications from Server, the truth is, not all instances need to be migrated in a single go. Taking a phased approach to migration is the best way to embark on the migration journey: such an approach can help you in clearly understanding your current workloads, prioritizing the migration, and ensuring the highest returns. Before taking the plunge, here are some questions to ponder over: 

1. Are you running legacy applications or workloads that require low latency or higher security control? 
2. Which workloads will benefit most from moving to the Data Center, and which to Atlassian Cloud?
3. If Cloud, which Cloud model (Public/Private/Hybrid) will be most beneficial, and which Cloud provider would be best suited?
4. Will a simple lift and shift migration work or do you have to carry out sufficient refactoring? 
5. Is your staff trained in a Data Center or Cloud environments? 

2. The choice between Data Center and Cloud depends on your unique business needs, goals, and budgets: Although organizations do have the option of using Server products even after the end of support date, it will put the safety of applications at high risk. Knowing the cost of a security breach, this might prove to be a serious gamble. Therefore, migrating to Data Center or Cloud – depending on business needs – is the only viable option. Here are some tips

1. If you have a large user base (>20k users) Data Center is the best option
2. If you do not want to get into the hassle of managing your workloads, moving to Cloud can help you focus on running your business – without worrying about day-to-day administration. 
3. If your instances are highly customized and cannot be simplified, opting for Data Center is a safe proposition. 
4. If you use a large number of Marketplace apps (>15), it is better to move to Data Center – and probably later to Cloud. 
5. If you need extremely high levels of availability, security, and flexibility, Cloud is the best option. 
6. If you have very specific compliance requirements, Data Center is a great option. 

3. Data migration is one of the most critical aspects: Irrespective of whether you are moving to Data Center or Cloud, data migration is one of the most critical aspects. Improper planning could degrade workload performance and lead to higher IT cost. Your migration strategy should be cleverly architected based on your business needs and your preparedness to address several common challenges that might erupt along the journey. Choosing a qualified Managed Service Partner like Addteq and a unified platform like Codeactori can help in subjugating the perils of migration while helping:

1. Identify and prioritize applications that need to be moved
2. Sanitize your workloads based on business continuity
3. Identify the type of migration required
4. Assess availability and skill set of existing resources for maintaining workload performance in the Data Center/Cloud
5. Mitigate Cloud exit strategy in case of poor latency or security compromises

In addition, a platform like Codefactori Enterprise can address challenges spanning:

1. Data and application portability
2. Data and application security  

4. Your existing Atlassian apps/ plugins need to be re-evaluated for compatibility: While moving their instances to Data Center/Cloud, organizations also have to plan for moving their apps. Since Server customers can no longer purchase or request a quote for any of the apps that are included with Data Center as part of these changes after February 2nd, 2021, organizations must re-evaluate existing apps/plugins before the migration process. 

A qualified Atlassian Partner like Addteq can: 

1. Evaluate your existing app environment 
2. Assess the compatibility of current apps with Data Center/Cloud
3. Carry out extensive app auditing in accordance with best practices 
4. Refactor or rebuild apps that are yet to be made available in Data Center/Cloud
5. Keep you in the loop about ongoing app renewals and portability

5. Migration could be complex: Given the pressure under which organizations need to prepare for End of Life, migrating from Server to Data Center/Cloud can be a Herculean task. Depending on in-house IT resources to carry out the migration can lead to problems in the long run. Therefore, it makes business sense to bring in experts who can get involved in the migration from the beginning and help in charting out a robust roadmap with achievable milestones. 

As an Atlassian Platinum Partner, Addteq can assist your organization in 

1. Understanding migration best practices and setting the right foot forward
2. Integrating your applications and custom developing your add-ons
3. Managing your migration project end-to-end, so you can focus on your business
4. Ensuring highest returns from the migration while reducing the cost and complexity 

With Atlassian Server approaching End of Life, the time to plan for migrating to Data Center or Cloud is now.

Addteq can help you understand how you can embark on the migration journey and how you can bring your organization up to speed with the latest tools, resources, and capabilities offered by Atlassian!