Why migrate to Jira Cloud? Atlassian Cloud vs Data Center Hosting Comparison

The Future of Hosting Methods

It’s not like cloud computing has been here since yesterday, but it’s definitely going to be there in the future. Atlassian is on a mission to become a cloud-first company, which remains their #1 priority as an organization. Is Jira Cloud a good solution for your company, and how can you prepare for the migration? Read on to find out. 

Jira Hosting Options Explained

Just for the record, Jira is Atlassian's project management software that helps all teams (Development, IT, Marketing, Legal, HR, and more) get their work done more efficiently. If you want to learn more about Atlassian's history, products, and ecosystem, read our article here. Now, let’s focus on Jira hosting. 

Atlassian currently offers two Jira hosting options - Jira Cloud and Jira Data Center. 

Atlassian Cloud is one of the hosting options Atlassian offers for its clients to run their products like Jira, Confluence, or Jira Service Management. Atlassian Cloud is the solution where all of the data is available through browsers and apps installed on your device, without the need to prepare all the infrastructure. 

All maintenance of the physical equipment is done by Atlassian, and you only use and manage their products in the cloud. It’s called the SaaS (Software as a Service) model, and you can be familiar with it from many other companies like Adobe, Microsoft, or Salesforce. 

Data Center, on the other hand, is another hosting option Atlassian provides. When using a Data Center, Atlassian lets you install their solutions on your own infrastructure - it’s a self-managed product offering, recommended for customers with really strict regulatory or security requirements. Management of the infrastructure remains on the client's side. 

You may also have heard of the Atlassian Server, but now it’s the past - the company has ended support for this solution. 

Atlassian is adopting a cloud-first approach, encouraging customers to opt for the cloud and making it more accessible to accelerate this transformation. That said, there have been some recent changes that you should be aware of.

Atlassian System of Work - Changes since 2025

Atlassian is shifting its focus from standalone products that isolate customer data to a connected set of cloud-based tools built on the Atlassian Cloud Platform. At Team '25, they introduced the concept of 'platform apps': just as your mobile phone comes with pre-installed apps such as camera and settings, each Atlassian Cloud app or collection comes with pre-installed platform apps.

Atlassian System of Work is a philosophy of how technology-driven organizations should work, connecting technology and business teams to accelerate progress and maximize team impact. It aims to connect business and technology teams to accelerate progress and maximize impact.

Both ideas led to the launch of the Teamwork Collection, a suite of Atlassian's most widely used collaboration tools designed to support modern teamwork. At the heart of the collection is Jira, which helps teams to plan, track and manage their work efficiently. The collection also includes Confluence, Loom, Rovo and Guard.

Another new set of products, the Strategy Collection, is designed for executives and comprises Focus, Jira Align, and Talent, helping leaders to connect strategy with execution. Purchasing a Teamwork or Strategy Collection means paying one price for the entire suite, rather than paying for each product individually.

In addition to these changes, Atlassian announced two new clouds, which you can read about later in the article. And now let's learn more about Jira Cloud's features.

Jira Cloud - Features Explained

Hosting

Choosing Jira Cloud (Atlassian’s SaaS-hosted solution) transfers infrastructure ownership, maintenance, and security responsibilities to Atlassian. This eliminates the need for on-premise hardware and manual upgrades, and gives access to the latest features. 

Jira Cloud is where Atlassian rolls out new features first and focuses most of its innovation. Updates happen automatically, so your team always gets the latest improvements without any extra effort. If you're on the Jira Premium plan, you can even choose when updates are applied to your instance.

Scale

Atlassian continues to strengthen its cloud infrastructure to meet the needs of large, complex organizations. With Jira Cloud, pricing is based on the number of users and the selected plan, and instances can scale up to 50,000 users, with support for 100,000 users coming soon. 

To help manage these environments efficiently, the Atlassian Command Line Interface (ACLI) enables teams to automate and streamline administration through scripts or interactive commands.

The Atlassian Cloud Enterprise plan offers advanced features for large organizations, including support for up to 150 product instances under a single license - ideal for separating teams by region, function, or security needs. It includes a 99.95% uptime SLA, ensuring high reliability with minimal downtime. Data residency lets customers choose where their data is stored (e.g., US or EU), supporting compliance and governance requirements. Atlassian Access is bundled in, providing centralized security features like SSO, SCIM provisioning, and audit logs. Enterprise customers also benefit from dedicated support, including access to Customer Success Managers for high-touch assistance across all major Atlassian cloud products.

Security & Compliance

When it comes to security, Atlassian’s cloud infrastructure is compliant with leading frameworks such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR, and FedRAMP (for U.S. government customers), with a focus on continuously checking the market trends in this area. Atlassian Guard (add-on subscription for Cloud) gives organizations the benefit of enterprise-grade identity and access management, including user management, user security, data loss prevention, and threat detection.

Data residency is a feature available for Standard, Premium, and Enterprise cloud subscriptions, which is important in regulated industries like finance, government, or healthcare that may need data residency to operate in a cloud environment.

When it comes to AI, Atlassian has established a set of rules to follow when implementing new technologies called Atlassian Responsible Technology Principles. They are linked to the company's general values and focus on transparency, security, privacy, accountability, inclusivity, and community. Read more about Atlassian Intelligence in our article here. 

Apps

Most apps in the Atlassian Marketplace today are built for Cloud, offering a wide range of tools to extend the functionality of Jira and other Atlassian products. If you're moving to the cloud or starting fresh, it's important to check whether the features you need are available. All Cloud Marketplace apps must meet Atlassian's strict security standards, including requirements for authentication, data protection, and vulnerability management.

In Cloud, you can only install apps directly from the Atlassian Marketplace - manual uploads of custom app files aren't supported. However, if you want to build your own cloud app, you can do so using Atlassian’s Forge or Connect frameworks, and choose whether to keep your app private or list it publicly. 

At Peakforce, we do that too - we help in the development of custom apps for Atlassian Marketplace Partners. We also assist in the migration of apps from the Server/Data Center to the Cloud. 

Find cloud alternatives to apps for the Data Center here.

Features

• Built-in Advanced Automation
  
  • Includes powerful automation tools out-of-the-box
  • Run rules as another user
  • Use advanced actions like “Create variable” and “Lookup issues”
  • Access smart values for calculations (sum, min, max, average, conditional logic)
  • No need to install a separate app (unlike Data Center)
• More project features
  
  • Project admins can toggle features like code, security, releases, and deployments
  • Enables agile features directly in team-managed projects
  • Improved boards and backlogs
  • Project timeline view for better planning
• Team-Managed Projects
  
  • Simplified setup that doesn’t require a Jira admin
  • Greater flexibility for individual teams
• Smart Links
  
  • Hover over links to display rich information and interact with link elements, like changing the status of Jira issues
• Language Support
  
  • Available in over 24 languages, with more being added
• Unified Atlassian Account
  
  • One login for all Atlassian cloud products
• Dark Mode
  
  • So that your eyes don't hurt 😉
• Insights & DevOps Metrics
  
  • Built-in tools to track progress and performance
• Atlassian Analytics & Data Lake (Enterprise)
  
  • Visualize data across your Atlassian toolchain for holistic insights in Enterprise (Atlassian Analytics is now HIPAA compliant). 
• Atlassian Intelligence (waitlist)
  
  • AI-powered suggestions and features (currently in early access). Read more in our article about Atlassian AI here.
• Access to Atlassian Rovo
  
  • Set of Atlassian’s AI-powered solutions that accelerate finding, learning, and acting on information across your Atlassian and third-party apps.
• Teamwork Graph
  
  • Atlassian's Intelligence data layer that connects and maps how work happens across both Atlassian and non-Atlassian tools.
  • Enables personalized experiences like smart work feeds, context-aware recommendations, and AI responses tailored to each user’s projects, goals, and team dynamics.
• The Atlassian Command Line Interface (ACLI) 
  
  • A tool that lets admins manage Jira Cloud directly from their device’s terminal using simple text commands and scripts.
  • ACLI can connect to multiple Jira sites, allowing users to switch between environments easily.

Pricing

For Jira Cloud, there are four license tiers available, with the option to pay either monthly or annually. Each tier unlocks additional features for productivity or to meet specific needs, such as SLA support or data residency requirements.

If you’d like to learn more about the differences between the licenses, check out our article here. You can check current Jira Cloud prices here. 

Atlassian Government Cloud (Early Access Program) 

A new Atlassian cloud offering was announced in 2025, which has earned FedRAMP Moderate Authorization, making it available for use by U.S. federal, state, and local government agencies. 

FedRAMP is a U.S. government program that promotes the adoption of cloud technologies across the federal government by providing a standardized approach to validating security and risk controls for cloud-based products and services.

With this approval, government organizations currently using Atlassian Data Center can now migrate to Atlassian Government Cloud and take advantage of new features, while keeping the data secure. Atlassian continues to invest in meeting federal compliance requirements, with plans to pursue FedRAMP High and Department of Defense Impact Level 5 (IL5) certifications in the future.

Atlassian Isolated Cloud (Coming soon)

Atlassian Isolated Cloud is a new single-tenant deployment option designed for large enterprises with strict security and compliance requirements. With an additional layer of protection against data leakage and security threats and additional control over data egress/ingress, networking, and encryption, Isolated Cloud brings cloud features to regulated industries. 

Unlike the standard multi-tenant cloud model, Isolated Cloud offers fully separate compute, storage, and networking within a virtual private cloud, where sensitive data is kept completely separate from other customers. 

This solution is ideal for large enterprises, typically with 15,000 to 50,000+ users, who have been unable to move to the cloud due to regulatory constraints or risk concerns. These customers have greater control over data access, encryption, and network traffic with Isolated Cloud, while still enjoying the benefits of Atlassian's cloud services and ongoing innovation.

Atlassian has planned the general availability of its Isolated Cloud for 2026.

Jira Data Center 

Data Center allows organizations to deploy on their own infrastructure, either on-premises (which means on the company’s private servers) or in the cloud using IaaS providers like AWS or Azure. This gives uninterrupted access for users by supporting high availability through clustered deployments.

You can choose between a non-clustered (single node) setup for simpler environments or a clustered architecture for load balancing and failover protection. Clustering is designed for large or mission-critical Jira instances, allowing you to provide high availability and maintain performance as you scale. Data Center uses industry-standard load-balancing, database clustering, and shared file systems to minimize downtime for your users in the event of unexpected hardware failure. Each node in the Data Center cluster increases capacity for concurrent users and provides a quality user experience under high load.

In the past, DC was the only alternative recommended for organisations that needed to meet specific standards for security, regulatory compliance, and scalability. Today, Jira Cloud offers more options with its new Government Cloud and Isolated Cloud. 

Jira Server (Legacy) 

Jira Server is a hosting option for which Atlassian ended support in 2024. If you are still using Jira Server, there are two options for moving to a supported platform: migrating to the cloud or upgrading to the Data Center.

Why Cloud?

The shift towards the cloud is inevitable. The popularity of SaaS models has accelerated technological development, with the cloud becoming the new standard. Moving to the cloud involves more than just moving data; it's a business, future-proof strategy.

• No more manual Uupgrades – Say goodbye to maintenance tasks. Atlassian handles all updates, helping you lower your total cost of ownership. With the Premium plan, the administrator can schedule updates.
  
  
• Built-in security – Don't worry about the security of your infrastructure.
  
  
• Access from anywhere – support remote and global teams with secure, browser-based access (no VPN required).
  
  
• Faster innovation – stay ahead with continuous feature updates that support your digital transformation and business agility.

Why migrate from Data Center (DC) to the Cloud?

While Data Center products require more maintenance and offer limited innovation, Atlassian Cloud is continuously evolving to help teams work smarter and achieve better results. Atlassian's goal is to make it easier for teams to align their goals, track their work, and share their knowledge using the cloud’s competitive features. 

• No more data silos
  
  • Cloud keeps your information connected and accessible across all teams and tools. This avoids expensive third-party solutions and makes it easier to get useful insights.
  • Data Center users have limited access to Rovo apps (Search, Chat, Studio); available connectors require manual setup and maintenance
  • Cloud embraces AI features with The Teamwork Graph that unifies, connects, and understands disparate data across all apps
• Stronger security, less admin work
  
  • In the cloud, Atlassian is responsible for security updates and system maintenance relating to the infrastructure. This means that you don't need to worry about patches, compliance or incident response for it.
• Lower costs over time
  
  • With Cloud, you save on servers, hardware, upgrades, and IT headcount. You can also reduce spending on multiple overlapping tools.
• Always up-to-date
  
  • Cloud products get new features automatically, so you can focus on improving your business instead of maintaining infrastructure. 
• Ready for the future
  
  • Cloud gives you a flexible platform that grows with your business, helping you stay competitive and keep up with new technologies.

For 75 percent of respondents, it took less than three months to start reaping the benefits of the cloud. And 37 percent say it took less than one month.

How to Plan a Successful Migration

Summary

Jira Cloud is a solution designed to help companies focus on innovation and simplify the management of their apps. The advantages of Jira Cloud solutions include security, easy scalability, constant development of new features, and easy access. With the new Atlassian Isolated Cloud and Atlassian Government Cloud products, regulated industries have competitive alternatives to Data Center hosting. 

Peakforce is a remote-first Polish software house specializing in Atlassian and Splunk solutions.
As an official Atlassian Solution Partner and Splunk Partner, we support businesses across Europe and the USA with expert IT consulting, system health checks, custom implementations, and ongoing support. Contact us and let's turn your challenges into success stories - together :)

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FAQ
What is the difference between Jira Cloud and Jira Data Center?

Jira Cloud is Atlassian’s Software as a Service (SaaS) offering, where Atlassian hosts and manages the infrastructure, providing automatic updates, scalability, and access to the latest features. In contrast, Jira Data Center is a self-managed solution that allows organizations to host Jira on their own infrastructure, offering greater control and customization, which is ideal for companies with strict compliance or data residency requirements.‍

Why should I consider migrating to Jira Cloud?

Migrating to Jira Cloud offers several benefits, including reduced infrastructure maintenance, automatic updates, enhanced scalability, and access to Atlassian's latest innovations like Atlassian Intelligence. It also aligns with Atlassian’s cloud-first strategy, ensuring your organization stays current with the platform's advancements.

What is Atlassian Isolated Cloud and Atlassian Government Cloud?

Atlassian Isolated Cloud is a new single-tenant deployment option designed for large enterprises with strict security and compliance requirements. With an additional layer of protection against data leakage and security threats and additional control over data egress/ingress, networking, and encryption, Isolated Cloud brings cloud features to regulated industries. 

Atlassian Government Cloud is a new Atlassian cloud offering announced in 2025, which has earned FedRAMP Moderate Authorization, making it available for use by U.S. federal, state, and local government agencies.