Jira Server not advertised anymore

[Michael Schlueter]

Recently I visited atlassian.com on a new computer, where I did not have my usual bookmarks and passwords in place. So basically I came there as a "new" customer looking for the Jira Server download.

It scared me a lot, that nowadays it is almost impossible to find out that there is such a thing as Jira Server. All you can see is the cloud.

I wonder what this means for future of the server products, despite of Atlassian saying that the service versions are still developed.

What are your thoughts on this?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Atlassian have been saying for many years that "Cloud is the future".

In my opinion, they are pretty much right.  But I think they are, to use an English colloquialism, "a bit previous".  I don't think the world is entirely going that way, and I don't think their Cloud offering is anywhere near ready to start to displace the Server option.

Irrespective of Atlassian's thoughts (although I think they're more forward-thinking than a lot of others), there is very clearly a polarisation happening.  On an over-simplified scale from "run it ourselves" to "I just want to use what the service provides and not have to think about it", everyone in the world is moving towards one pole or the other.  Atlassian Cloud is at one end, Data Centre is the other, and hence Server is a shrinking market.

My best guess is that Atlassian will announce the end of Server quite soon.  If you look at the code base though, Server and the install for a DC node are the same thing.  Recently, there's been some moves that make it easier and easier to take a single Server install, stick a DC licence key on it, and bang, it's a "single node cluster".  (As a personal aside, that really annoys me, as I started my career in computers on systems that automatically worked as a cluster, and I'm so disappointed that <mumble> years later, most of the IT world still struggles with it)

I suspect it will have a long run-down time - it will still be years before you will not be able to buy a Server licence.  But you'll see lots of encouragement to move to Cloud or DC, and a lot of neglect of Server.  It will live on in spirit, but as DC nodes only.