Introducing a new VPN connection option for Enterprise Insights virtual private cloud

[#1]

Now available

A new VPN connection option for Enterprise Insights is generally available and can offer more flexibility and security. You may opt-in at no additional cost if you use, or upgrade to, the virtual private cloud (VPC) offerings for both Jira Align and Enterprise Insights.

Refresh: What is Enterprise Insights and what is it for?

Enterprise Insights is a data mart for Jira Align and enables you to pull data into whatever tool you want in order to view whatever knowledge you want. You can use Enterprise Insights to sync with other reporting platforms. You can embed your external reports back into Jira Align. You can pull reports into Confluence. And much more! Learn more about Enterprise Insights, or explore the FAQ.

You asked. We delivered!

If you are an Enterprise Insights customers, you likely use IP allowlisting to access and leverage your data. Recently, some of you have reported that IP allowlisting can be time-consuming, inflexible, or a less secure option for your particular environment. For example, IP allowlisting may not pass your policies, you may use dynamic IPs, or your admin(s) spend too much time on support tickets to maintain the IP allowlist!

We took your reports seriously and architected a VPN connection option that is now generally available to qualifying customers who opt-in!

The VPN connection option for Enterprise Insights

he new connection option pictured above is a private route-based VPN connection between your Enterprise Insights instance and your corporate network. This connection is enabled by using a public cloud provider such as Google Cloud Platform (GCP) or Amazon Web Services (AWS). Today, policy-based and hardware-based VPN connections are not supported.

Note that this connection option is highly-technical. To be successful, your network team and the Jira Align team work together to establish, test, and secure the tunnel.

Why a VPN connection option matters

We invested time to understand exactly why this is important and beneficial to you.

First, it is more flexible! Some of you use dynamic IP addresses to access Enterprise Insights, so IP allowlists are impractical. Plus, some firewall policies prevent opening TCP (transmission control protocol) port 1433 to outbound traffic over the public internet. So a VPN connection option can restrict that traffic to the VPN tunnel.

Second, it is an alternative if your policies object to IP allowlisting. For customers with access to Microsoft Azure, we can setup an Azure private links alternative to IP allowlisting. But we’ve found that some of you don’t have access to Azure, and you still needed a solution.

Is VPN a good connection option for your Enterprise Insights?

The VPN connection option is only available to customers that use the virtual private cloud (VPC) offerings for both Enterprise Insights and Jira Align. For these customers, the VPN option is available at no additional cost! Otherwise, you can find out more about our high concurrency VPC offerings by reaching out to your Atlassian account team!

Next, if you’re using the VPC offerings for both Enterprise Insights and Jira Align, do you have access to Microsoft Azure? If so, and if you do not want to use IP allowlisting, we are able to provide you with an Azure private link to access Enterprise Insights. If this describes you, please create a support ticket to get started!

If you’re still reading , the VPN connection option may be a good fit for you; especially if your environment prevents using IP allowlists to control access to Enterprise Insights.

Next steps if the VPN option is a good fit

If you worked through the criteria above and determined that the VPN connection option is a good fit for you, you can start to set yourself up for success. You’ll need the right people, network configuration, and security considerations. Designate someone on your team to be the networking point of contact. You can also read more about what’s required in our documentation: VPN connection for Enterprise Insights VPC.

If you’re ready, notify your Solutions Engineer or Atlassian partner that you’d like to set up a VPN connection for Enterprise Insights. Or you can create a support ticket. Either way, please include the info of the networking point of contact from your team!

Final thoughts

Your feedback is invaluable and we’re thrilled you’re on the Jira Align journey with us!

If you have comments or questions, please comment below. Thanks!

[Rafael]

Hi, I am interested in using jira automation to connect to a web service (API REST) that requires vpn access. Would it be possible for the jira automation agent to make this call by encapsulating it in a vpn or is this not technically possible?