Atlassian Cloud or Data Center. Both deployment methods have their advantages and disadvantages. Currently, what you choose mainly depends on your requirements, the number of users you need on your systems, the security specifications of your IT-Department and the long term strategy of your organization.
Before we further discuss when to choose Data Center or Cloud, let’s first tackle the various pros and cons of each system.
Atlassian Data Center
Atlassian Data Center is a self-hosted method to run your Jira or Confluence systems. Data Centers have the feature of routing server requests through different nodes that are self-hosted. In the event of one node failing, the others are able to handle the load. A server system with different nodes would be worth the effort when an instance has 500 or more users. However, there, are occasions when there are as few as 250 users. Data Centers can save you money in the long run, especially if your company is growing quickly or you want to grow.
Using Atlassian Data Center you are able to take full control over your IT Infrastructure. This way you can:
- Reduce downtime to a self-controlled minimum
- Scale the required infrastructure to your requirements (on demand)
- Full control over data protection and data security
- Control over the updates for your system
- Unlimited number of users
Data Centers are independent of the number of users you need for your organization. The Atlassian Cloud, on the other hand, is currently limited to 20.000 users. (They are currently testing up to 50.000 users at Atlassian.)
Atlassian Cloud
The Cloud is here, and it won’t go away. On-premise solutions are no longer an option (at least for most organizations). The question though remains, do you want to follow the trend and be an early adopter, or will you miss the opportunity to adopt future-proof technologies?
Serverless infrastructure (cloud) offers many benefits to organizations throughout the world. Additionally, Atlassian's constant work towards optimizing its product is paying off: concerns regarding security and compliance are being taken seriously and appropriate steps are being taken to close the gaps. Let's take a look at exactly why you should consider the cloud option for your business, now that you know how it works in Atlassian products:
- 100% Availability: The Atlassian Cloud has guaranteed availability of 99,95%.
- Faster configuration: Setup and configure new instances within just a few minutes.
- Automatic Updates: The Atlassian Cloud receives updates as soon as they’re available. No more manual updates *????*.
- Increased productivity: Leverage modern tools, approaches and features to your advantage and save valuable resources (time)
- Reduced Management costs: The time for physical hardware, manual maintenance, sunk costs and upgrades are finally over. Moving to the cloud clearly saves you money by removing infrastructure costs from the equation.
- Pay for what you use and when you use it -> cost-effectiveness
Learn more about hosting Atlassian apps here via Data Center or Cloud here.
Atlassian Cloud or Data Center - What to choose and when
Data Centers are chosen by organisations when their Atlassian applications have become "business and mission critical". Ask yourself what the costs of a system failure would be and how valuable the Atlassian applications are in your organization. In the event that your entire development team were unable to work due to a system failure, this would be particularly adverse for your business as you pay for the work generated.
In addition, certain organizations have an enhanced need for data control and privacy. Hosting your own Data Center on your own servers means you have complete control over the upkeep and maintenance of the servers, but also have full control over the data at your disposal. Companies with extensive security needs, like banks or health insurers, may find this to be a crucial factor.
Cloud is a long-term investment that allows companies to scale, improve employee productivity, increase speed, and increase innovation.
With both models - cloud and Data Center - you gain reliability, increased productivity, and cost savings. Server users who wish to continue to maintain their own IT infrastructure should consider switching to Data Center.
As you can see, both models have their advantages. In the end, the main factors of choosing cloud over Data Center are up to your requirements.
Need help evaluating the different possibilities? Our Atlassian expert will help you choose the right solution for your requirements and needs.
