SAML SSO Support

Question

Currently I am investigating SAML SSO solutions. Since there are also Confluence/JIRA in the environment, I just checked whether there is a way to integrate SAML with JIRA and/or Confluence.

What I see now is a bit "frustrating". If I understand the situation right, there is a SAML integration available from ATLASSIAN which deeply integrates in the products.

But it's only available for Data Center customers. I cannot understand why customers of the "Server" products - which usually pay also lot's of money for the software - cannot participate on that feature. They have to buy additional Add-Ons since of using integrated features.

Can anyone explain me this approach?

Thanks, Martin

Davin Studer · Answer

You are correct that the data center versions support SAML and the server version does not. Honestly, the only reason I can see why they would do this for data center and not server is monetary. They believe that that feature necessitates the higher tier. Now, you and I may disagree, but that I imagine would be their reasoning. Most products have features that are only included in higher level tiers. Maybe someday they will change that position, but till then a third party add-on is the only way to go.

Lennart · Answer

@Marius Pinteai'm not in any way connected to Atlassian but i've got an idea on this: Once they offer this feature within JIRA Software, they would have to support it. They would have to support many more environments. In some environments it might be not this easy supporting SAML as a way to authenticate users. Environments differ and there are situations which are pretty hard to predict.

I've got some experience with the guys from Kantega for example (greetings to you guys) and they've been able to solve issues the M******** Premier Support wasn't able to solve on its own. I called them for an issue M******** was working on for about 2 weeks, they stepped in the day afterwards and solved it within 30 minutes. Turned out the issue was related to DC configuration.

Things in life aren't free and support is worth more than money in many cases.

Atlassian currently leaves many fields (SAML in JIRA Software is one of them) to consulting companies focusing on this topic instead of trying to solve this on their own. Instead, they invest the money on continue developing the core. Seems to be the right strategy.