Atlassian Data Center end of life: Migrate to Cloud is critical

Yes, it's here. The Atlassian Data Center End Of Life (EOL) has been formally announced and it has been scheduled for March 28, 2029, with a gradually phased process which will start in 2026 and will end in 2028. In practice, that means self-managed instances, and their Marketplace apps will become read-only after Data Center formally ends in 2028. Keep reading to learn more about this change and the keys to migrate Jira Data Center to Cloud, getting all the advantages oif your Atlassian Marketplace stack, the Atlassian Cloud Data Residency, Rovo, the Teamwork Graph, and more. 

The announcement of the Atlassian Data Center EOL came as a surprise for some users, despite all the hints Atlassian has been sharing over the last years regarding this deployment option. The news has brought a great commotion across the Atlassian Community. As a consequence, many customers are expressing their concerns in different forums across the Internet. After all, one truth is unique across this news: innovation has been concentrated and delivered almost exclusively in Cloud for the last years.

To market this announcement, the Atlassian Ascend program has come to life, which packages the support, tooling, and license options for this transition (including FastShift for large orgs and a dual license path for Bitbucket customers), and frames Cloud as the place where AI, Analytics, and scale will keep arriving first. A well-packaged solution to move from Data Center to Cloud as soon as possible. 

As we're going to share some light about the different aspects and common doubts about this particular change, let's start from the beginning:

The timeline: When is Atlassian Data Center going to end?  

Atlassian has set firm dates to wind down Data Center, which basically means that they will end new sales in March 2029, meaning that if you're still in this deployment option, you won’t be able to act on it. Let's go through it:

•    Dec 16, 2025. This doesn't impact customers directly, but Marketplace Partners which won't be allowed to submit new apps by the end of this year (2025).
  
  
•    March 30, 2026. No new Data Center subscriptions or new Data Center apps for new customers.
  
  
•    March 30, 2028. Last day, existing customers could buy new Data Center licenses, apps, or expand them.
  
  
•    March 28, 2029. This is the end. All Atlassian and Marketplace apps in Data Center will become read-only.

When Atlassian says “read-only,” they mean that you can access data, but cannot take actions, and you won’t receive ongoing bug or security updates beyond the covered announced window.

Why is Atlassian announcing this now? As Atlassian has been positioning Cloud as a “massive upgrade” with a centralized administration, AI teammates (Rovo), the Teamwork Graph, integrated analytics, an expanded catalogue of Data Residency locations, and different/specialized Cloud deployment options (Government Cloud and Isolated Cloud). Atlassian also claims 99% of 300k+ customers already benefit from Cloud, and 75% of complex/regulated customers have a Cloud footprint.

It’s important to remember:
Atlassian Cloud in 2025 is very different from what it used to be…  

In 2025, Atlassian Cloud is fundamentally a different hosting option than what we had in 2019, given that they have rolled out a different set of features and capacities, setting the record to demonstrate that Atlassian Cloud is an enterprise-grade platform. An example of that:

•    The Atlassian Cloud platform already offers single sites supporting 100k Jira users and 150k Confluence users, proving they have the capacity to scale to meet the needs for enterprise global rollouts.
  
  
  
•    Atlassian has created a range of Atlassian Cloud deployment options; they have now included the Atlassian Government Cloud (FedRAMP Moderate compliant) and the forthcoming Atlassian Isolated Cloud single-tenant option. Also, it’s important to note that Atlassian is actively building FedRAMP High/IL5 environments ahead of the end of Data Center.
   
  
  
•    The Data Residency coverage is getting bigger, as in the last year, Atlassian has added six new Atlassian Apps, making compliance requirements easier to meet than before. 
  
  
  
•    We cannot leave aside important features available almost exclusively for Atlassian Cloud, differentiators such as Rovo, Atlassian’s Teamwork Graph, and a series of apps like Goals, Teams, and Home that connect work and data across Atlassian and third-party tools. 

Besides all these specific characteristics and features, it’s also important to note that this evolution of Atlassian Cloud has become a reality thanks to the velocity they have pushed in delivering new updates: for example, 1000+ Cloud features in 2024 with approximately 8000+ deployments per month, which compares to the Data Center option.

Migrating Atlassian Marketplace Apps

Implicit in the process of migrating from Data Center to Cloud is the process of moving your current stack of Atlassian Marketplace apps to the Cloud in order to keep the same functionality you have in Data Center, in the Cloud, without workarounds. As you will face different scenarios, to succeed in this process, you should choose what's less time-consuming, less impactful, and  more efficient for you and your team. Among these scenarios, migrating Atlassian Marketplace Apps, you might face the following:

1. The best scenario: Your current Atlassian Marketplace apps in Data Center has a migration path and feature parity in the Cloud, that will allow you to smoothly move your apps with less effort and more effectively. 
   Bonus: If you’re working in a regulated industry, it’s a HUGE advantage if the apps you're moving to the Cloud also has Data Residency features activated. This will allowing you to geographically locate the data in the country of your choice for better compliance. 
   
   
2. The middle point: The Atlassian Marketplace apps you have in Data Center also have Cloud versions that will allow you to migrate there. No feature matching, nor migration path is guaranteed, by lacking those, it might create some difficulties when assessing, migrating and matching functionality during the transition. 
   
   
3. The not-so-ideal: The Atlassian Marketplace apps you have in Data Center don't have Cloud versions. In this case you will need to asses by yourself or with the support of a qualified team to check how to fulfill that functionality in the Cloud, by the means of other apps in the Marketplace or by the means of Atlassian Apps features in the Cloud. 

Besides these three basic scenarios, the scenarios are limitless given it depends on many factors, and current tech stack situation, on your needs, what’s available, and the possible combinations in between these scenarios.

Among these options, options like Projectrak for Jira and Exporter for Jira, part of the PMO Collection for Jira, allows you to make your transition from Data Center to Cloud the best and smooth as possible, so your project management stack remains unstoppable in the Cloud, taking advantage of all the features there. 

Migrating Projectrak and Exporter:
Keeping your Atlassian Data Center PMO system in Atlassian Cloud

As you might have realized by now, you're aware that if you’re using apps such as Projectrak and Exporter in Atlassian Data Center, your move to Cloud doesn’t mean a a pain. It's an upgrade:

•    Projectrak for Jira Cloud offers portfolio-level visibility and centralization (project custom fields, boards, timeline, milestones…) directly in Jira, cutting spreadsheet fatigue and aligning stakeholders. 
  
  
•    On the other side, Exporter for Jira Cloud allows you to conduct audits, reporting, and even migrations with extra metadata by exporting limitless work items (with comments and transitions) to Excel/CSV.

These two apps available in the Atlassian Marketplace, allow a smooth transition to Atlassian Cloud, especially if you're already using it in Atlassian Data Center, with the migration assistant, providing ease in the process of migration. 

Among other opportunities, by having these apps in Data Center and moving them to Cloud provides the Data Residency option, which allows aligning the Marketplace app data with your Atlassian region (EU/US/…), thereby providing a better understanding of regional compliance.

Pro tip: On the testing phase of the migration process, a good practice is setting up a Cloud sandbox, to install the apps you'd need there, and try Projectrak and Exporter, that way you'd mirroring your critical features, and validate stakeholder reports before keep going.

A pragmatic migration playbook

A successful migration to Atlassian Cloud is based on considering these five aspects that matter most: Catalog your apps and gaps, lock data residency, choose the right migration approach, communicate the business outcomes (not just feature parity), and pilot your Atlassian Marketplace essentials.

These steps will help you to cut risks, keep stakeholders aligned, and validate before going live. Sounds easy, but we all know it’s not, especially in big instances. Here are those steps, detailed:

1. Inventory your apps. Check feature parity with the same app and migration paths, if not, confirm Cloud equivalents first in Atlassian Apps, followed by other Atlassian Marketplace Apps.
   
   
2. Decide early on Data Residency early. Pining product data to regions that match your compliance posture will help you to place your data, from Data Center to Cloud in a simple way, and an smoother transition. Verify the available regions,given it might vary from Atlassian Marketplace App to another.
   
   
3. Choose the way you will migrate: Decide if you'll do it self-served by following Atlassian’s Migration Center guides, trials, and assistants, or using Atlassian Services as the FastShift, or the Solution Design Acceleration, also, taking expert guidance and assessment from experimented Atlassian Solution Partners is key. And for specific cases, for Bitbucket, considering dual-licenses to operate in Data Center and Cloud beyond EOL is a must. 
   
   
4. Communicate outcomes. Sharing a business case based on your situation to migrate for Cloud-only capabilities (AI agents, cross-product analytics, unified search) and the expected time-to-value/cost impacts is important to keep stakeholders properly in sync.
   
   
5. Test your Cloud stack. Run your bundle of apps such as Projectrak and Exporter in a Cloud sandbox while Data Center remains live as usual. Once tested, and assessed, formally schedule and communicate the migration process.

A pragmatic migration playbook

Atlassian’s retiring Data Center isn’t just an IT change, it’s a business decision. Cloud first is here for Atlassian, and we need to face it. Moving now puts you in control of timing, budget, and outcomes: faster delivery, stronger security posture, simpler operations, and modern capabilities like AI and cross-product analytics. 

In the complexity of your migration process just be sure to not loosing your portfolio visibility and audit-ready exports, they can remain from day one. The short playbook we've put on is straightforward: pick a date that works for the business, confirm where your data should live, run a short pilot, and communicate the wins in plain terms. Do that, and this won’t feel like an end, it will feel like you reduced risk and unlocked room to grow.