Atlassian officially announced the end-of-life (EOL) for its Data Center products across all its channels in September.
We’ve been expecting this for a while, since Atlassian began removing data center certifications in March 2025, and they’re now entirely focused on the Cloud platform.
Because migration to Atlassian Cloud is now inevitable, what does this mean for Jira Data Center teams? If you want to know the options Jira and Confluence teams have for handling this change, and a few practical steps you can take, this post will help.
What We Know About Atlassian Data Center End of Life
The official end-of-life date for Atlassian Data Center is March 28, 2029.
At exactly 23:59 PST on this date, Atlassian will stop its support for the following products:
- Jira
- Jira service management
- Confluence
- Bitbucket, and
- Marketplace data center apps.
As it was during the Atlassian Server EOL period before 2024, migration from DC to Cloud will be phased. This ensures everyone has enough lead time to audit, plan, prep, test, and migrate smoothly at the organizational level.
Key phases and dates:
This is the entire timeline for the key changes by Atlassian:
- December 16, 2025: New DC apps will no longer be submitted to the Marketplace.
- March 30, 2026: DC license sales and app sales will end for new customers.
- March 30, 2028: Existing customers will no longer buy new DC licenses, expansions, and app sales.
- March 28, 2029: All Data Center subscriptions will expire, and the environment will reach end of life.
The impact?
After March 2029, any data center customer who hasn’t moved to Atlassian Cloud will lose:
- Technical support
- Security updates and bug fixes
- Service level agreements (SLAs)
- Connectors from Data Center products to Atlassian Cloud.
Want to see the reasons why you should migrate from DC to Cloud? This table, which compares the benefits of moving to the Cloud from a Data Center, can help.
Why Teams Should Consider Moving to the Cloud
The main reason you should move to the Cloud is that Atlassian is heavily investing in its Cloud platform. DC won’t receive any new features, security updates, automation, or integrations anymore.
Staying on a self-managed DC infrastructure can expose you to the following risks:
- Increased security risks due to a lack of security updates.
- Compliance issues with GDPR, NIS2, and other frameworks.
- Compatibility issues with your currently used DC marketplace apps.
- Increased total cost of ownership (TCO) because of ongoing maintenance.
Additionally, there are understandable real-world concerns that teams may encounter during migration that can’t be ignored.
Common Concerns Teams May Have During Migration
For instance, some of the concerns Atlassian customers often raise during migration include:
- Heavy dependence on automations, REST APIs, and custom integrations.
- Worries about how source code and repositories will be handled for teams using Bitbucket.
- Concerns about running reports or analyzing data for teams that rely on an RDBMS.
- Fear of losing structure during a complex migration.
These are genuine and unique challenges, and they can vary depending on your context.
What Options Do You Have as a Data Center Customer?
Generally, there’s no single path to migration. Atlassian offers options and a few exceptions depending on the unique challenges a DC customer faces.
At this stage, your options are:
Option 1: Migrate to Atlassian Cloud
You can migrate to one of these Atlassian Cloud options:
- Standard Cloud plans for Jira and Confluence.
- Isolated Cloud.
- Government Cloud.
Quick note: If you are unsure whether one of these cloud options can meet your requirements in terms of internal and legal compliance and security, visit the Atlassian Trust Center.
Option 2: Get a Bitbucket Hybrid License
Alternatively, those who use Bitbucket Data Center will be getting special treatment.
If you’re a Bitbucket customer, you will be able to get a new hybrid license that allows you to use both Bitbucket DC and Bitbucket Cloud and operate in whichever environment your business prefers.
In addition, Bitbucket Data Center apps will continue to be sold through the Marketplace.
While this is good news, you should expect Bitbucket Data Center to be removed shortly as well.
Option 3: Extend Data Center Support For a Short Term
There may also be some unique cases and requirements that are not currently available in Atlassian Cloud that warrant a timeline extension. To ensure work is not interrupted, Atlassian is willing to let some customers purchase multi-year Data Center extensions that extend beyond the set EOL date, making this shift less painful. But this is by exception only.
Pro tip: For this, please reach out to Atlassian to discuss migration options or contact your Account Executive.
It’s also recommended that you explore the Atlassian Cloud roadmap to see whether the feature you’re looking for has already been added.
Most importantly, migrating from a data center to the cloud is not a single technical event you execute after you know your Cloud options. Actually, that’s when the real work begins.
How To Prepare For a Smooth Cloud Transition
The way you prepare to migrate your data to the cloud depends on the migration method you choose.
Go through these links to learn the recommended cloud migration methods for:
If you have fewer than 10,000 users, we recommend the lift-and-shift method. It reduces many migration complexities and the time it takes to start enjoying the benefits of the Cloud.
In addition, before you can enter the preparation phase, you should assemble a team to help you build a migration plan. The whole journey needs to be a team effort.
Prep phase
Once that’s handled, here’s a quick table that covers the key areas you can look closely at in the prep phase to ensure you’re set up for a smooth migration:
| Steps | Actions | What It Entails |
| Audit Your Jira and Confluence Setup | Take inventory of everything you currently have running. | Catalog Jira, Confluence, JSM instances, users, projects, spaces, permissions, workflows, and app dependencies/usage. Identify what needs to be migrated, retired, or rebuilt. |
| Review Marketplace Apps | Decide which plugins you have installed in DC are needed in Cloud. Atlassian’s app assessment can help. | Check for feature parity, available alternatives, migration paths, and cost differences. |
| Clean Up Your Instance Before You Move | During this time, check for inactive Marketplace apps or users, old product data such as projects, spaces, customizations, or workflows, and duplicate data. | Clean up Jira and Confluence instances, optimize your database, and minimize your Jira/Confluence data customizations. Tools like Jira or Confluence migration assistants can help. |
| Calculate Licensing and Long-term Costs | Estimate your costs in the cloud. | We recommend that you speak with a pricing expert to estimate the price differential between the DC environment and the Cloud. |
| Reduce your Migration Downtime | Build a timeline with minimal downtime | Clean up your instance, run a test migration, set user permissions to read-only, and pre-migrate users and attachments. Also, get your users started in the Cloud. |
| Complete pre-migration checklists | Review Atlassian’s pre-migration checklists to make sure your data and environment are ready to go. | Run through all the items in the Jira and Confluence pre-migration lists. |
How does cloud migration really impact marketplace apps?
Let’s say you’re currently using Easy Issue Templates for Jira Data Center. Because existing templates are stored differently in DC than in Cloud, there’s no automatic migration path for them. That means:
- You’ll likely need to recreate templates manually after migration.
- Any workflows, checklists, or automation that rely on those existing templates may break unless you reconfigure them.
- Reporting or integrations tied to those templates may require extra validation from your end.
However, there’s a proper workaround possible that also involves installing Easy Templates for Jira Cloud.
Common Blockers
Talking about how marketplace apps affect migration, the following are common blockers you should watch out for, as they can slow down migration:
- People blockers. Some people may become “defensive” of their ideas, projects, teams, and departments and resist change.
- Poor communication between IT, project teams, and other departments is another issue.
- Missing documentation for existing workflows, fields, or app dependencies.
- Overloading your teams with too many tasks at once.
- Technical issues, such as custom scripts, unsupported apps, heavy template workflows, large instance data, environment problems, or outdated tools.
All of these issues have the potential to block, impede, and ultimately slow down the migration process. If you encounter any of them, identify the root cause to see if you can find a solution.
Atlassian Provides Services To Help You Transition
Even better, Atlassian now offers services that can make migrating to the Cloud much smoother.
- For customers with fewer than 1000 users, Atlassian offers dedicated self-service tools, such as cloud migration assistants, to help make the transition as smooth as possible.
- Organizations with more than 1000 users can join Atlassian’s FastShift Program and speed up migration timelines from 12–16 months to 2–6 months.
- Do you have 5000+ users? Atlassian’s Solution Design Acceleration program will support the most complex use cases with a dedicated partnership to plan and execute a transformation that meets your company’s business objectives.
Consider taking advantage of one of these migration services Atlassian provides as we approach the end-of-life date.
Start Planning Early
We can’t stress this enough — you need to start early.
March 2029 may feel very distant, with more than three years to complete Cloud migrations or find new alternatives. But it’s really not that long as one may think.
In fact, a normal migration takes 6 to 16+ months unless you qualify for Atlassian’s FastShift program to speed things up. Either way, waiting until the last minute is a risky move and can be costly.
Other Practical Recommendations:
- Contact your Atlassian representative or partner as soon as possible.
- If you don’t have one, submit a ticket to support and request one. You may need their expertise later.
- Work with your selected partner to evaluate which Cloud option is best for your organization.
- Conduct a migration assessment project. It can help weigh your options, create a plan, and set a timeline for migrating.
- Consider joining one of Atlassian’s migration services.
Taking these first steps early will ensure you have the support you need and a proper assessment. This can help you secure the funding required to execute migration well in advance and get the whole organization ready for this shift.
Final Thoughts
If you’re an Atlassian Data Center customer, the EOL countdown has already begun. While March 2029 may feel far off, now’s the time to weigh your options carefully and consider their implications for your organization.
Because this is a significant shift that will streamline processes, reduce technical debt, improve security, and give teams access to the latest features and automations, start early. This way, you’ll be in control of the whole Cloud migration process and avoid last-minute chaos.
