Pros and Cons of self-hosted vs. cloud-hosted service for Jira Service Desk

[Jessica Wilson]

Hi All,

I am new to all things Jira Service Desk (and Atlassian, or that matter) and have been asked to investigate what some potential pros and cons might be about moving from our self-hosted service to a cloud-based service option. 

Wondering if anyone could offer some thoughts or experiences in relation to this topic. I appreciate anything feedback you are able to offer!

Jessica Wilson

Manager, Help Desk Services

Valparaiso University

[Lenin Raj]

Hi @Jessica Wilson 

Cloud based solutions are easier to setup and the infrastructure is managed by Atlassian. You'll automatically receive the latest updates frequently.

For a detailed comparison, please check https://confluence.atlassian.com/confeval/jira-service-desk-evaluator-resources/jira-service-desk-what-are-the-feature-differences-between-server-and-cloud

[Sven Schatter _Lively Apps_]

Neither Cloud or Server are clearly just better. It always depends on what you need and how you want to use the product.

As @Lenin Raj already mentioned, Cloud requires no maintenance and infrastructure which is especially nice if you're a small team.

Server on the other hand gives you a lot more freedom to implement complicated use cases. Not only will it probably be easier to find apps on the Marketplace for it, but if you're working with a Solution Partner they will be able to develop customizations that will make the product exactly fit your use case. Formal restrictions like a hard requirement for data locality can also be a reason for Server to be the better option. Of course Server comes with the downside of having to do all the maintenance yourself.

So it really depends on what you need. If you're a small team and "just need a ServiceDesk" definitely go with Cloud. If you have lots of custom requirements, or will likely need customization in the future, it might be worth reconsidering staying on Server.

Very minor, but still important: if you want to actually make the switch you should know that there are some small differences between Cloud and Server feature wise. So make sure you thoroughly evaluate the Cloud whether it fits your use cases or if you might have set up some behaviors on Server that you can't replicate in Cloud. I believe Atlassian is very generous with giving out (extended) trials for Cloud so really spend some time on this to make absolutely sure! :)

Hope this helps! :)

Cheers,

Sven

[Aleksandr Zuevich]

Hi @Jessica Wilson ,

I like @Sven Schatter _Lively Apps_ response, just want to add general Atlassian cloud vs server comparison: https://confluence.atlassian.com/cloud/compare-atlassian-cloud-vs-server-744721664.html

By the way in my perspective main points are:

• scaling, upgrade, maintenance and infrastructure support will be your responsibility if you choose server, while it is much easier with cloud where you just set up everything in few clicks using UI;
• you should understand that your data will be somewhere in cloud if you choose cloud version. Yes, it is secured, of course. But sometimes there is a requirement to keep sensitive information inside your private corporate network (tickets could potentially contain it). In this case you have to choose server version;
• as I know Atlassian is cloud-first company which means that new features will be developed for cloud version first;
• as @Sven Schatter _Lively Apps_ mentioned, server versions allow deep customization.