Atlassian Server, Data Center or Cloud – How to Select the Right Deployment Option

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Embracing the world of Atlassian tools is a great way to overcome the many software delivery challenges that have become rampant in today’s competitive business landscape. 

Organizations with a growing user base tend to launch additional instances, which increases the complexity of managing and maintaining them. As applications become mission-critical, instances hit their limit, and there is a risk of reduced productivity and increased work delays.  

To overcome the different challenges that organizations face, Atlassian offers a range of deployment options to match their requirements: Atlassian Server for organizations wanting to run tools on own or third-party servers, Atlassian Data Center for those looking to overcome issues pertaining to performance and application availability, and Atlassian Cloud for those looking to ship new products and services faster with optimal reliability and functionality. 

With three different deployment options available, how do you select the right one? Read on to find out! 

Pros and Cons of each

Atlassian’s different deployment options are curated to meet the distinct needs of modern businesses, allowing them to automate and integrate processes across the software development lifecycle and build, test, and release software quickly and reliably. 

Although each option offers a set of modern features and capabilities, they also carry some disadvantages. Here’s looking at the pros and cons of each deployment option: 

  Pros Cons
Atlassian Server
  • More control over data and infrastructure 
  • Better visibility
  • Richer integration 
  • Wide range of Marketplace apps 
  • Easier customization 
  • Better compliance
  • Unlimited users  
  • Upfront capital investments
  • Poor scalability
  • Increased administration overhead 
  • High operational costs 
  • High maintenance 
  • Manual upgrades 
Atlassian Data Center
  • Increased performance 
  • Better application availability
  • Robust disaster recovery capabilities 
  • High scalability 
  • Minimized downtime 
  • Higher deployment flexibility 
  • Modern security and compliance capabilities 
  • Complex to set up and upgrade
  • Higher implementation costs 
  • Licenses need term renewal 
  • Additional costs for hardware, IaaS, app licenses, and third-party tools 
Atlassian Cloud
  • Optimal reliability and performance
  • Easy setup 
  • Great failover options 
  • Improved redundancy
  • Enhanced scalability 
  • Minimized capital investments
  • Access to thousands of Marketplace apps
  • Unmatched technical support 
  • Enterprise-grade security
  • Limited customization options
  • Restricted control over data and apps 
  • Limited integration capabilities 
  • Limited users (except for the Atlassian Cloud Enterprise plan)

 

Key Considerations 

Making the right deployment choice is a challenging responsibility for any organization. 

Although many organizations are moving from on-prem to cloud, each deployment offers its own set of advantages and disadvantages. It is imperative for organizations to evaluate the options based on some important aspects. 

Here are 3 key considerations to keep in mind before making a choice: 

  1.     Long-term roadmap: The choice of the right Atlassian deployment option begins by evaluating the long-term roadmap of the business. Understanding where you are today, what Atlassian tools you’re currently using, and your current deployment model sets the stage for the right choice. You also need to be aware of your goals as well as your constraints, integration, and customization requirements, and more to be able to make a well-thought-of selection. If customization and integration is a core requirement, Server deployment is the perfect option. 
  2.     Pricing: Another factor that needs to be taken into consideration is pricing. Comparing the overall cost of ownership for every user for the next 3-5 years will help you arrive at a practical conclusion. You need to bear in mind the different costs of each option, including the cost of infrastructure, setup, and maintenance, as well as software license cost. If you’re looking to optimize long-term costs, Cloud deployment is what you need to opt for.  
  3.     Mission-criticalness of applications: Lastly, how mission-critical your applications are and the level of functionality, availability, and security they need also plays an important role in the deployment selection. Not-so-critical applications can work great in a Server setup, while critical applications need the security and availability offered by Data Center and Cloud. 

Conclusion

Streamlining the application delivery process has become a top business priority for most organizations today. Since choosing the right methodology, approach, tool, and deployment option can be a challenge, specialized consulting through quantitative discovery can ease the selection process for DevOps organizations. By understanding your current processes, challenges, and goals, a qualified partner can help assess your current delivery process, quantify your objectives, and build a practical roadmap, so you can overcome development complexities and reach your business goals more easily.