Cloud computing is on the rise among businesses of all types and sizes. According to a report from Intuit, almost 80% of small businesses in the United States will have completely migrated to cloud computing by 2020.

But when it comes to hosting Atlassian applications and add-ons, many of which have become mission-critical tools in helping to drive growth and success, what are your options?

In this blog, we explore the three most common pathways businesses take in hosting their Atlassian tools including traditional on-site solutions, Atlassian Cloud, and the AWS Cloud.

On-Site Hosting for Your Atlassian Applications and Add-Ons

Typically, the decision to host Atlassian applications on-site is driven by the desire to maintain comprehensive control over your resources and infrastructure.

Advantages

• On-site solutions enable you to install the exact hardware, software, and tools you really want.
• With Atlassian Data Center, you get access to valuable administrative functions that allow you to add licenses, expand storage, and more.

Challenges

• Implementing this type of model requires a deep understanding of hardware and software, server space, and other issues that affect the long-term reliability and scalability of your on-site solution.
• Investing in infrastructure like servers can require significant capital outlay.
• You need to factor in both the ongoing financial costs stemming from maintenance and support, as well as the opportunity costs associated with your internal team needing to devote their technical resources to look after your environment.

The Final Word

On-site Atlassian hosting solutions are often best for enterprises with considerable capital budgets and large IT teams that have knowledge of Atlassian applications and are capable of planning and executing such sizable projects.

Keep in mind that choosing an on-site solution doesn’t mean the burden of responsibility needs to fall entirely on your own teams. With expert Atlassian consulting services, you can improve internal and external processes to ensure you get the most out of your Atlassian applications and add-ons. By taking advantage of Atlassian training, you empower your teams to use the tools to their fullest, while Atlassian Administration and Functional Support (AFS) administers your environments continually to keep them secure, up to date, and optimized.

Atlassian Cloud Hosting for Your Applications and Add-Ons

Atlassian Cloud is a SaaS subscription service that provides fully functional versions of JIRA, Confluence, Bitbucket, and other tools in an integrated cloud environment.

Advantages

• Atlassian Cloud is an easy-to-deploy model and can be a cost-effective choice.
• You can scale use dynamically and only pay for what you need.
• Atlassian Cloud is secure and safe. SSL is enforced by default, and your applications and data will be hosted in a US-based facility. Enjoy 99.9% SLA as well as always-on support from Atlassian.

Challenges

• You are limited to cloud-only add-ons.
• There is no file or database access, and you can’t use your own domain name.
• Each subscription has a disk storage limit.
• Functions that would normally be performed by a Systems Administrator are more limited with Atlassian Cloud.

The Final Word

Atlassian Cloud can be an ideal solution for smaller teams who are looking for out-of-the-box Atlassian solutions and have limited in-house supports.

AWS Cloud Hosting for Your Atlassian Applications and Add-Ons

AWS Cloud hosting is becoming the preferred choice for a variety of reasons and is the ideal option for organizations that need enterprise-grade performance, high availability, and elastic scalability.

Advantages

• Migrating to the AWS Cloud helps organizations transition from capex to opex models, as there are no associated infrastructure costs for you to take on.
• With a third party managing your AWS environment and Atlassian applications, upgrades are simple and seamless.
• Cloud security is AWS’ highest priority, which means you can be confident knowing your applications and data are in the safest hands.
• AWS maintains data centers around the world, including one in Canada.
• You can get the expert support you need to architect and maintain your infrastructure without needing to increase the size of your in-house team.

Challenges

• The costs associated with migrating to the AWS Cloud and maintaining those environments can be prohibitive for smaller teams.
• Since it’s off site, you need to make sure you choose to work with a partner you can trust.

The Final Word

Hosting Atlassian applications on the AWS Cloud gives organizations around the world flexibility, scalability, security, and performance they simply can’t achieve with on-premise or Atlassian Cloud solutions.

One of the biggest hurdles traditionally has been the sheer complexity of executing Atlassian workload migrations at scale, particularly for large enterprises. In 2017, AWS released enablement packages and programs that make it easier for organizations to transition their Atlassian applications and add-ons to the AWS Cloud. iTMethods was proud to be identified as one of the select AWS Advanced Consulting Partners with the technical skill and expertise to manage such migrations.

Read our previous blog to learn more about migrating enterprise Atlassian workloads to the AWS Cloud.

Unleash the Power of Atlassian on the AWS Cloud with Elasity

Elasity, an iTMethods product, simplifies the deployment, integration, and support of your Atlassian applications, add-ons, and custom integrations on the AWS Cloud:

• Fully Managed Atlassian Hosting: Elasity is the most flexible and secure managed Atlassian cloud-hosting platform, supporting Atlassian Server and Data Center applications and providing planning, migration, maintenance, upgrades, and license management.
• 24/7 Management and Support: Your environment will be fully managed and cared for by our certified AWS and Atlassian experts, people you can actually call and speak to. Audited by AWS, our Certified Managed AWS services meet stringent criteria in support of AWS and industry best practices.
• Secure and Compliant: Is PCI, SOX, HIPAA, Data Residency, or other compliance needs a requirement? No worries, we have you covered! Elasity runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS), the leading Cloud platform used by over 1 million organizations across the world.

Our Atlassian and AWS experts can help migrate, manage, and maintain your environment, enabling you to scale seamlessly without compromising security and empowering your teams to get the most out of the Atlassian tools they use the most.

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We enable enterprise application teams to innovate, automate, and accelerate on the AWS Cloud. Our suite of products provides solutions for Atlassian hosting, DevOps, cloud configuration challenges, and more while our comprehensive monitoring means that all our customers can rest easy. Contact us today to learn more.

Read more from iTMethods:

• Why You Need to Care about DevOps
• 6 Tips for Scaling Your DevOps Transformation
• Aligning Developers with a DevOps Cloud Strategy