Atlassian users complain of cloud migration dead ends, especially in UK

The Register’s Monday story about Atlassian’s looming end-of-support deadline for its on-prem server products has turned up a nasty dilemma for UK users who need local data residency, because Atlassian doesn’t offer it and may not do so before support expires. Atlassian will end support for its on-prem server in February 2024 …

[Anonymous Coward]

Only yesterday I wrote:

I'd no more place my systems in the hands of a cloud operator than I'd place my john thomas in the hands of a lunatic with a pair of scissors.

Seems some people did just that.

Also I would question the value of ISO27001 if it can be negated in moment by a 3rd parties actions.

[Anonymous Coward]

Many companies can't go cloud

There are very many companies (my personal experience is defence contractors) where the whole development team does not have Internet access. It has to work with on-Prem air-gapped resources. A number of these are soon to become ex-Atlassian customers.

[Headley_Grange]

Re: Only yesterday I wrote:

If the company's got a hard requirement for UK hosting then it should have ensured its hosting contract included guarantees and liquidated damages to cover the costs of moving if their host renaged. Atlassian would, I'm sure, have said "it's our standard contract - take it or leave it", at which point the company could have walked away.

Or - IT were ignored when they warned the directors that this could be a problem and running their own servers could be cheaper in the long run than moving to a new provider every few years.

[blackcat]

Re: Only yesterday I wrote:

The company I worked for started with Jira in about 2012 (I set it up) and back then there wasn't even a cloud version. There is only a finite distance we can see into the future.

[Excused Boots]

Re: Only yesterday I wrote:

"Atlassian would, I'm sure, have said "it's our standard contract - take it or leave it", at which point the company could have walked away.”

Ah but imagine the standard scenario for such a contract negotiation, in a pub (bar), with drinks flowing and the sales rep saying “look for ‘certain reasons’, we can’t put these guarantees in writing that xyz will happen, but trust me, xyz will absolutely happen; oh and look, you seem to have dropped an envelope containing a large quantity of untraceable cash - best pick it up yes? Now just sign here and I promise that all will OK! “

Alas always has been the case, probably always will be.....!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Only yesterday I wrote:

... ignored when they warned the directors ...

... running their own servers could be cheaper in the long run ...

Most probably.

But you forgot about the AH beancounters.

You know, those imbeciles that always have the shareholder's ears via the usual CXOs.

Serves them right.

They will think it twice the next time around.

Or maybe not ...

.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Only yesterday I wrote:

I’m not sure I understand your point. At a guess, at present they have an on premise version of an Atlassian product. Now they don’t have that option, and can’t use a cloud hosted version. Their hosting contract isn’t changing, just what software they can use in their UK data centres. That’s not the fault of the hosting provider. And that’s all assuming they’re external Co-Lo data centres, and not their own DCs?

[CrazyOldCatMan]

Re: Only yesterday I wrote:

"it's our standard contract - take it or leave it"

Ah - the Vodafone approach. When we were selecting them (many years ago) as our mobile supplier via the Government Portal we wanted to make some changes to the contract to better suit our needs.

Their answer was it was a standard service offering and they wouldn't change it for us.

(Notice - not 'couldn't' but 'wouldn't'.. I can't remember whether we still use them)

[Dan 55]

Re: Only yesterday I wrote:

Also I would question the value of ISO27001 if it can be negated in moment by a 3rd parties actions.

And by 1st party actions. Some corps are going all into cloud, but the CxO's won't be there when the shit hits the fan.

[abend0c4]

Re: Only yesterday I wrote:

negated in moment

TBF, customers have had three years. But it's a fair point - ticking the box at a single point in time is a lot easier than managing the risk of it becoming unticked in the future, though the expectation is that doing the former implies you have a plan for the latter.

[CrazyOldCatMan]

Re: Only yesterday I wrote:

Also I would question the value of ISO27001 if it can be negated in moment by a 3rd parties actions

having done ISO27001, there isn't a requirement for the data to be hosted in the UK *unless* the organisation involved has made that one of their policies.

Like most ISO stuff, all they care about is that you have a policy [1] about the subjects covered and that you have documented proof that you stick to that policy.

[1] Said policy *can* be "we have no policy" but the assessor might then fail you for being a smartarse.

[elsergiovolador]

Relief

Imagine being a software developer earning typical UK engineering wage and then your employer comes up with:

Compass identifies relevant libraries and repositories used by a project and makes them available to developers so that if they’re working on related projects, they don’t have to hunt for the resources they’re expected to use.

Now you only need to hunt for reduced price food...

[Dan 55]

Re: Relief

Who knows what Compass does from that description, and what it does that "ls /usr/lib" doesn't.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Relief

"Compass identifies relevant libraries and repositories used by a project and makes them available to developers so that if they’re working on related projects, they don’t have to hunt for the resources they’re expected to use."

Look harder.

It is there but you cannot see it right away.

It is refererd to as the between the lines effect.

What does it say?

You have just been royally sodomised / fucked ...

Twice.

.

[Joe W]

"The reader quoted above told The Register they’ve started a migration to GitLab."

Yup. Same here. Similar requirements (data souvereignty et c.).

We are lucky, we had some dev teams host their own GitLab solutions (they were sort of a separate entity), so there are people with some experience (like being able to say: yeah, don't do that stuff, sounds great but you'll regret it).

[Doctor Syntax]

“developer experience”

Any time I see "experience" in marketing blurb I mentally add "bad" in front of it.

[TheWeetabix]

Developer Experience…

“This is what marketing thinks your job is like!”

[CrazyOldCatMan]

Re: Developer Experience…

“This is what marketing thinks your job is like!”

While off their faces in the pub/cathouse/drug den..

[Anonymous Coward]

This sounds like Atlassian has hopped onboard the enshitification train.

[StrangerHereMyself]

Alternatives

There are many open-source alternatives for Jira, which is Atlassian's main product. Just go with that and leave Altassian behind.

[CowHorseFrog]

> A reminder: one of Atlassian’s values is “Don’t #@!% the customer”.

A reminder, why would anyone believe any one liner from a corporation ?

[Snake]

At least they were honest

"The answer is always because SaaS is better."

Better for Atlassian, the salesperson should have finished with. A partial truth, by casual omission.

[The Man Who Fell To Earth]

Don’t #@!% the customer

Sounds a lot like "Don't be evil.". Enough said.

[Ashto5]

Not the only game in town

Seriously they are not he only game in town.

Personally I prefer Azure DevOps (put the knives away)

In the past before these things we wrote our own to support the teams we worked with.

It is actually not that difficult, any decent DB and you could be up and running in a week.

So many features that you pay for but never ever use.

[Excused Boots]

Quote;

A reminder: one of Atlassian’s values is “Don’t #@!% the customer”.

To which the obvious repost is;

‘Unless it is profitable to us in the short term*; in which case please do '#@!% ‘ away!’

* by short term, as long as it takes for the c-suite people to realise their share options / golden parachute / bonuses etc. After which, well who cares about the poor customer - they certainly don’t!

[Jayell]

Other Options

One of the alternatives for larger organisations is Digital.ai, with their product formerly Collabnet VersionOne having been in production for many years, it provides both Teams and Portfolio level planning. On Premises offering, strong support and the ability to operate either instead of Jira or on top of it to help deliver to where there are 'teams of teams.'

If you're not totally adverse to cloud they also have a component that helps to deliver Flow Metrics as well as some cool Predictive Analytics.

[untrained_eye_of_newt]

3 Billion dollar company that sells to-do lists

[Joseba4242]

ISO27001?

Why should ISO27001 be a reason not to use cloud services?

There are many legitimate reasons not to want to make that transition, but quoting ISO27001 is just an excuse.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: ISO27001?

You’re missing the point. ISO27001 means the the software they use must be supported. Once support ends for Atlassian products they can’t use it. And for other reasons <insert here> they can’t use cloud solutions. The other reasons are not a result of ISO27001.