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5 Questions to Consider Before Migrating to Atlassian Cloud

Things to consider before migrating to Atlassian Cloud

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Migrating to Atlassian cloud is a decision that many businesses have been considering lately. Atlassian’s decision to move away from server and concentrate its resources mainly on cloud has meant that many IT teams found themselves facing a race against time to properly migrate their Atlassian products as well as their apps. However, it is safe to say that Atlassian cloud migration can be a bit tricky, time consuming and resource intensive. And before making the switch, it’s important to consider a host of questions.

In this blog post, we will cover the main things to consider or questions to ask before migrating from server or data center to the cloud.

Questions about Migrating to Cloud ?

This blog post is the second of a series all about cloud migration. In the first article, we covered the differences between the two hosting options (Cloud and Data Center). And, which one to consider for different types of businesses.

👉 Check out first article of our Cloud Migration series Comparing Atlassian Cloud & Data Center

In upcoming articles, we will shed light on the common myths about cloud migration and how to get it right.

👉 Check out our article about Common Myths about Cloud Migration

1. What is the End-goal of Migrating to Cloud?

As is the case with any new IT initiative, it is crucial to identify the reasons and put together a list of goals. Atlassian cloud migration is no different. This will not only help in laying the foundation for a successful project, but also get decision makers and teams onboard.

As we mentioned earlier, the main reason pushing IT teams to consider cloud (especially the ones on server) is Atlassian’s announcement to end support for server instances. Although this may appear to be the driver, the progress Atlassian has made on its cloud offerings highly contributed to the switch. 

Objectives behind Atlassian cloud migration include faster deployment, easier scalability, enhanced security, lower costs, etc. Knowing your objectives or long term targets is the first step. Learning how to get there and what success looks like is the next one. Here, you can put together a list of KPIs that will help you determine the progress you have made and allow you to make adjustments along the way.

2. How Many Apps to Migrate and Are They Available on Cloud?

The Atlassian cloud migration process depends on many factors, perhaps the most important is your Atlassian environment, or how cloud-ready it is. The number of apps associated with a given Confluence or Jira instance can greatly influence your migration strategy. It cause unwanted issues in the future. Some of the apps you are currently using on server might not have an equivalent on the cloud or might function differently.

Check whether your on-prem apps are available on cloud. Then, identify the feature differences between each hosting option using the Atlassian migration assistance.

3. Migrating to the Cloud: How Complex Can it Get?

Another important factor to consider before migrating to Atlassian cloud is data complexity. By complexity here, we don’t only refer to the complexity of data itself or internal processes, but also to the number of apps and users, permission settings, customization, consolidation, and more.

Server to cloud migration for small instances with less than a 1000 users, only a couple of apps and minimal customization is rather straightforward. However, the more apps, users and customization involved, the more complex the migration can become.  This is why it is important to organize data, review internal processes and prioritize apps.

4. Can My Organization Remain Secure and Compliant After a Migration?

There always has been skepticism over cloud security, data privacy and compliance on the cloud. Atlassian guarantees optimal levels of security through secure development practices, data encryption in transit and at rest, as well as the detection of vulnerabilities through post-production tools such as the bug bounty program. In terms of privacy, Atlassian is compliant with different regulatory standards and data privacy laws such as GDPR among others. However, security and compliance at a provider level is not enough for organizations within highly regulated industries. The latter should keep their data on their own infrastructure. Think of the public sector, healthcare, banking, and other sectors dealing with highly sensitive data such as patient records, social security numbers, etc.

Make sure to check whether migrating to the cloud would keep your organization compliant with regulatory standards and privacy laws.

5. What Are My Resources?

Now that you have set your objectives, identified and assessed your apps, you will be able to establish a timeline and allocate the right resources for your migration.

The first thing to consider here is the team that will be responsible for the cloud migration. The size of the team will primarily be determined by the migration complexity. The more complex the migration, the more resources you will need to handle various stages and eventual challenges. 

The same can be said for the budget. One of the common reasons to opt for cloud deployment is cost reduction and efficiency. Here, it is important to assess the current spend, and estimate eventual cost savings after the migration. You can use Atlasian’s Cloud savings calculator to get a rough estimate on how much you can save. Obviously, using this tool does not help you accurately determine the costs unique to your business.

It is true that migrating to cloud necessitates an initial investment with a higher license fee. However, this fee is significantly lower than server deployment costs, which Atlassian handles directly.

Migrating to Atlassian cloud is a complex process that requires organizations to rethink their overall IT and business strategies. In this article we have covered some of the questions that IT teams need to ask before migrating.

In the next article of this series dedicated to cloud migration, we will discuss the fact and fiction about cloud migration. Stay tuned!