How to deal with Data Center end of life as a non-profit

[Matthias Gaiser _K15t_]

I'm running a Confluence Data Center for our local CVJM which has a bit more than a hundred users. We use it mainly for documenting our internal knowledge, planning of some events such as planning camps or our handball teams.

Since almost everyone in our organization is a non-paid volunteer, most people only interact with a very low frequency with Confluence. There are a few power users who use it weekly, maybe at some times daily, but these are rare.

With that usage in mind, I wonder what I'll do with our instance when it's time to migrate to Cloud. I'm thankful that we have an actual free license now. If we'd switch over with that setup, this would result into ~ $ 1,675/year which is not easy to handle.

Therefore, I'm thinking about various options:

• Give some users read-only access, e.g. by using an app like Scroll Sites
• Use Confluence guests to save seats for the less-frequent users
• Migrate to another tool

I'd be interested to hear of other folks with the same challenges - and what you will do/recommend to do when it's time for the migration.

[Darryl Lee]

Hey @Matthias Gaiser _K15t_ does CVJM not qualify for 100% off based on Atlassian's new Social Impact License? 

If not, I wonder if it'd be worthwhile to get one of the User License Management tools out there to automatically remove licenses after a certain period of time, to keep your costs down?

Things like:

• Flexible User License - Auto User Management for Confluence (OSCi) 
• Kantega User Management & License Optimizer for Confluence 
• User Management and License Optimizer for Jira & Confluence (Resolution) 
• User Management for Jira (bulk & timed inactive users) (TechTime) 

(I recognize the irony of paying for an app to keep your license costs down. I remember when I first saw a product like this for Server/DC and asking the vendor - "How does Atlassian let your product exist on their Marketplace?" I was suprised to hear them say that Atlassian actually was cool with it and that they understood the value of companies needing to "right-size" their licenses. Or something like that. It was a long time ago, and Server/DC Licenses were sold in tiers back then. It's a whole new world now in Cloud, isn't it? :-) 

[Updated to add TechTime's app who added a possible reactivation solution in a link in my later comment below.]

[Matthias Gaiser _K15t_]

We do qualify for the 100% discount, but that's limited to 25 users only unfortunately. Beyond that, we still get a generous 75% discount, but that's still a lot of money with our occasional usage.

Yes, it might actually be worth it to check the apps out - maybe I could also get a discount from them.. :) What I'm trusting these apps is to find inactive users and disable them timely - what I still wonder is: How would I easily activate users again - even better how can the users activate themselves again?

And maybe a silly question: If a user is deactivated, do they still get notifications if they're mentioned?

[Darryl Lee]

Yeah I think the reactivation thing has been a difficult nut to crack with cloud. 

Oh! But it looks like there are some possible clever solutions (well, if you have an IdP):

How do you handle dynamic licenses with Atlassian Guard? 

Hrm, does CVJM have an IdP? You might have to pay for Guard? Woof, that's $1,050/yr (if you can stay under 25 users).

[Matthias Gaiser _K15t_]

Interesting article, I'll have a closer look into it.

We do have Google Workspace for some accounts in place, but most of our users are joining with their private mail addresses (which I assume doesn't make it easier).