Atlassian pulls the plug on server licences, drags customers to the cloud
- Reference: 1603111506
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/10/19/atlassian_server_licenses/
- Source link:
The Aussie biz makes software development and collaboration tools including Jira, for issue and project tracking, Confluence for document collaboration, Bitbucket for source code management and Bamboo for continuous integration and deployment.
In a [1]post at the end of last week, co-CEO Scott Farquhar informed customers that from February 2, 2021, it is ending new server licence sales, and that from February 2, 2024 it is ending support and bug fixes for server products - the idea being that users should migrate to its cloud services.
The bad news for cloud hold-outs does not end there, with price rises for existing users who purchased before October 2019. Atlassian is retaining its on-premises enterprise software, called Data Center editions, but at higher prices, though adding priority support in most cases. The company described this as “sharpening our focus as a cloud-first company,” and Farquhar claimed that “more than 90 per cent of you start with Atlassian cloud products”.
This also means the end of the $10.00 licences for self-hosted editions for small numbers of users, available for example for Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket and Bamboo for up to 10 users. These will not be available after February 2 next year. Note though that the company still has “always free” cloud plans for up to 10 users.
One of the issues for users is that the cloud versions are not identical to the server versions. For Confluence, for example, “the cloud version has so many limits in structuring,” [2]said one user, “especially when it comes to things like using with add-ons like Viewport to create a helpsite.” Data Center remains an option but prices start at $27,000 for up to 500 users.
Another user [3]complained that “Confluence is my notebook. I'm a freelance security researcher and submit security vulnerabilities to my customers … it is definitely impossible to move those data to some random server not controlled by myself.”
“We are currently evaluating Bitbucket and Jira because of the on premise[s] option and we are not allowed to store anything in the cloud,” [4]said another user.
Others are [5]anxious about issues of data protection under the EU's Gerneral Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) following the end of transAtlantic workaround [6]Privacy Shield , saying “as an EU company we are not allowed to process personal data in the US.”
Cost is also an issue. “Migrating our 15,000 Confluence users to data center would cost $154.000 now and $250.000 after 2.2.2021 - this is insane!” [7]said an existing server customer, who also expressed doubt whether even the Data Center editions would continue indefinitely.
The trade-off for Atlassian is that ending its line of server products will give it more resources to devote to cloud and drive more customers to the continuing income of subscriptions – a strategy that has [8]worked well for companies like Adobe, and it may figure that upsetting a few customers along the way is worth it. ®
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[1] https://www.atlassian.com/blog/announcements/journey-to-cloud
[2] https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-questions/Is-Confluence-server-being-phased-out/qaq-p/1509577
[3] https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-discussions/Please-take-your-decision-back-about-dropping-server-version/td-p/1508974
[4] https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Bitbucket-discussions/Very-disapponted-by-the-server-policy-change/m-p/1508956#M2865
[5] https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-discussions/Privacy-shield-Atlassian-pushing-users-towards-cloud-GDPR/td-p/1508960
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/20/privacy_shield_declared_invalid_consequences/
[7] https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-discussions/server-policy-change-but-no-custom-domains-this-is-a-nightmare/m-p/1509440#M7885
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2020/06/12/adobe_killing_off_advertising_cloud/
[9] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: All aboard the Gitlab train
Shouldn't be a problem.
Atlassian just has to confirm that their cloud offering is certified by FDA, FAA, DoD, every-other-3-letter-agency and that they have an unlimited insurance policy against any business losses due to security breaches we are fine.
> Another user complained that “Confluence is my notebook. I'm a freelance security researcher and submit security vulnerabilities to my customers … it is definitely impossible to move those data to some random server not controlled by myself.”
That user concluded that:
> For me, if the decision is made and fixed, the only possible solution is: using current version of Confluence Server for another 10 or 20 years.
Which is exactly what I've ended up doing with JIRA. They started playing silly buggers with the feature set and UI a while back, so I put off upgrading again and again. Then license renewal came round, and I said fuck it.
The VM it runs in has been increasingly isolated from the rest of the internet over the years, but aside from the odd crash should continue doing what I need it to for quite some time.
I'd love to migrate to something else, but nothing quite fits the bill
- Jira cloud is slow, and involves storing my data on someone else's servers
- Newer versions of JIRA server are rubbish
- Gitlab's issues functionality is still a bit sub-par IMO (though it is improving)
Of course, Atlassian probably don't really care what I think, particularly given I stopped paying them already. They may, though, be underestimating the amount of anti-JIRA and anti-Confluence sentiment out there, which'll come to the fore when companies start talking about/planning their migration to JIRA cloud. If you've got to migrate anyway, why not migrate to something better?
GitBlit + XWiki
Gitblit has a possibly interesting workflow and can simulate issue tracking. XWiki is a solid wiki, it's actually convenient to have everything go in to the database without the file repo.
Dear Security Guy
Have you tried org-mode in Emacs? It will blow your mind
Re: Dear Security Guy
org-mode would only work if they already know Emacs.
All aboard the Gitlab train
Really, Atlassian should know better. There are so many reasons for companies to host their source code on their own infrastructure, but licence fees won't be among the top ten. Fortunately, other products are available.