In what it is pitching as a bid to free up capacity and “to move faster”, software development and collaboration tool provider Atlassian has made some changes to its server and Data Center products, pretty much giving on-premises users 3.5 years to either switch to the cloud, pay more or find an alternative somewhere else.

The company plans to end support for all server products on February 2, 2024. Tools affected by the change are Server versions of Jira Software, Jira Service Desk, Jira Core, Confluence, Bitbucket, Crowd, Bamboo, as well as Atlassian and Marketplace apps.

Organisations looking to renew or upgrade their server subscriptions until then will have to brace themselves for increased prices which are meant to “ensure the continued security and maintenance” of the server platform. The new cost model will be put into effect on February 2, 2021 – precisely the day on which Atlassian will stop selling new server licences.

According to Co-CEO Scott Farquhar, the move shouldn’t affect too many customers, since “more than 90 per cent” start with the company’s cloud products nowadays and “more server customers making the switch every day”. However, for a good percentage of the remaining server users this switch might not be an option. Governmental institutions for example still have some strict regulations in place which won’t just disappear because everyone else is jumping onto the cloud.

To not cut those off completely, Atlassian will continue to offer Data Center, which also provides an assortment of self-managed tools. The prices for that however will also experience a hike in 2021 to “support continuous innovation”. A preliminary list of the future pricing is already available and sees costs almost doubling for certain products if they are purchased for the first time. 

Customers who’ve stuck to Atlassian for a couple of years might be eligible for loyalty discounts, while existing subscriptions “will receive a moderate increase upon their next annual renewal to help ease into our new Atlassian list prices”. 

Users who are looking for a recommendation on where to go from here can either talk to Atlassian’s support team or wait until October 29, when a recommendation tool is supposed to become available. If moving to the cloud is an option, Farquhar suggests looking into the Atlassian Migration Program which, amongst other things provides guides and migration tools, as well as a support team.