pro and con of a cloud migration

[Alexander Pappert]

Currently, I use jira server with a lot of modifications

I am unsure to migrate to cloud or to datacenter

pro

• cloud is directly updated by atlassian (no work for me)
• server availibility / SLA is maber higher/faster than my company ITs
• it works also with external users which are currently not in my companies active directory
• when moving, I could maybe adapt some of my modifications and stucture

contra

• server / datacenter is cheaper because we host it
• all data is really on our servers and our IT is responsible for the data
• it is maybe faster than atlassain cloud (when users are in the company building)

What are your experiences with cloud migration?

[Alex]

Hi @Alexander Pappert 

When you mention "server / datacenter is cheaper because we host it" are you considering indirect and shared costs such as energy, backups and bandwidth consumption? Not to mention that your IT team could also be part of the equation as resources to maintain the infrastructure. 

One of the reasons companies are moving to the cloud is the costs savings when the overall aspects of maintaining their own infra. Have you tried the Atlassian Cloud Calculator to have a better idea from a cost perspective?

 Cheers,

Alex

[Jack Brickey]

The other obvious pro of cloud is that cloud will be supported by Atlassian as the continually focus on the product.

[Huwen Arnone]

I'm curious @Alexander Pappert, What's your situation regarding the apps you have on the Server? Did you check all of them have the same functionalities in Cloud?

I'm with @Alex regarding the cost; Cloud is a long-term investment, which seems a lot at first, but after a couple of years, the ROI would be evident.
Regarding your second pain point against Cloud, I would look at it differently: by relying your data on Atlassian (which is not an easy choice to make, I get it -Check their Trust Center), you will be earning more productivity from your IT team, which also affects indirectly and positively in the impact of the initial cost.

And regarding the speed, in this "remote-first" situation, it would be appropriate to consider Cloud.

Either way, we always will have Data Center, at least for the short term. In the long-term, I'm all-in with the comment @Jack Brickey made.

Whatever your choice will be, it would be great if you shared it here as well. It is always cool to learn from other experiences as well as people have done on this thread.

Wow, this answer was longer than I expected 😅