Until now, the issue of data residency was a knock-out criterion for many European companies when it came to the Atlassian Cloud. Only customers of the Enterprise license were free to choose whether their data should be stored in the EU, the USA or worldwide. Users of the Standard and Premium licenses, on the other hand, had no choice.
Atlassian has recognized that this is a blocker for many (potential) customers and is now relenting: From 01.07.2021, you can create new cloud instances in any realm (EU, USA or worldwide) at no extra cost, regardless of whether you are a Standard, Premium or Enterprise customer.
Atlassian Data Residency: Does this apply to all data?
Not quite. Although all content data such as board or sprint data in Jira and all attachments are covered, user data, for example, is still stored in the global realm. This is not a problem for customers from the EU, as Atlassian is GDPR-compliant and the user data is therefore legally and technically in good hands.
However, customers from certain non-EU countries such as Switzerland will continue to have problems. However, there is hope that Amazon Web Services (AWS) will soon set up its own Swiss location. As Atlassian uses AWS to host its cloud, this would also benefit Swiss Atlassian customers.
You can find out in detail which data can and cannot be moved to other cloud realms on Atlassian's Data Residency overview page.
Atlassian Data Residency: When do existing cloud instances move?
To avoid overloading the servers, Atlassian provides for a two-stage move. As already mentioned, customers will be able to freely choose the cloud realm for new instances from July 1, while existing cloud instances will be able to do so from October 2021 at the latest. Unfortunately, an exact date has not yet been set.
My conclusion: thumbs up!
Atlassian has recognized that data residency is not a bonus feature, but an essential prerequisite for the move to the cloud. Accordingly, they have added this feature to all license models - and at no extra charge! This step is absolutely the right one and will significantly accelerate the spread of the Atlassian Cloud, especially in the EU.
When are you planning to migrate? We will be happy to support you.
