Doing an independent App assessment
How to migrate to the Atlassian Cloud independently with your company
Are you thinking about a Cloud migration, but don't want to give up the apps you've been using? Is your company not a large corporation, but small and (still) manageable? Are you wondering whether you can prepare and carry out the move to the Cloud yourself? Then we have just the thing for you: We'll show you how to evaluate your apps and migrate them independently to the Cloud.
Check the availability of your app in the Cloud
Use a Cloud Migration Assistant to determine whether your local app is also available in the Atlassian Cloud. You can easily download the Assistant from the Atlassian Marketplace.
Tips for admins - did you know?
The Cloud Migration Assistants are pre-installed with the following products:
- Confluence 5.10 und höher
- Jira Software und Jira Core 7.6 und höher
- Jira Service Management und Jira Service Delivery 3.9 und höher
Compare features and look for alternative apps
Perhaps the Cloud version of the apps you've been using will not look or function the same. If you are missing certain features or if there is no Cloud version of a local app, you should look for an alternative app or an integrated Cloud feature that meets your needs. Atlassian provides a list of suggested alternative Cloud products for both Jira and Confluence apps.
Evaluate the security and trustworthiness of the app
In addition to the security requirements Atlassian sets for Cloud apps, you (or your company) may have your own. So, of course, you should include your individual privacy, support, reliability, and compliance requirements in your evaluation.
You can read more about data protection in the Atlassian Cloud here.
Consider the apps when planning the migration
Find out if your apps support manual or automated migration paths. Check out these pages for Jira- and Confluence-Apps to see which migration paths are currently available. This information will help you create a timeline and plan for your migration.
Checked? Then it's off to the home stretch!
Already completed your app evaluation? Now it's down to the nitty-gritty: the actual app migration. But you're not on your own here either - follow Atlassian's Cloud Migration Guide for your migration planning and execution. You'll notice that it's quite comprehensive and that there's a lot to keep in mind. That's why we’ve limited here to the most important steps that you should take after planning your migration:
Clean up the data on your server instance
A Cloud migration, like a house move, is the perfect time to finally sort out old and no longer used things. After all, the more data you migrate, the longer and more complex your migration is likely to be (and may even affect Cloud performance later on). That's why you should clean up your server instance before you perform the test migration.
Install Cloud apps
To avoid a moment of utter shock when you realize that some apps didn't migrate properly or don't work completely - here's what you should do: As part of the migration test run, install all the apps you want to use in the Cloud. This way, you and your stakeholders can test them for functionality and migratability.
Perform a test migration
To ensure that everything runs smoothly when it is time to migrate, you should perform a test migration - regardless of the size of your company or the complexity of the actual migration process. This can be done using the free Cloud migration trial. Once again, Atlassian provides a test guide. If you use the Cloud Migration Assistant for Jira or Confluence, there are even step-by-step instructions.
Back up your data
Even if everything went smoothly during your test migration, you should play it safe and back up your self-managed instance before migrating - regardless of the migration strategy and method you choose. Here are tips for backing up data for Jira or Confluence.
Communicate your migration plan
Has the test migration been successful? Have you backed up all data? Are all the deadlines set and does everyone know what needs to be done? Then it's time to inform your entire company about the official migration plan. Tell your employees when the migration will take place, what downtime users can expect, what the new URL(s) will be and how they can log in as users.
Set the server as read-only
Now things are getting serious! To avoid confusion and the risk of something going wrong, you should set your sites to "read-only" before migrating - assuming you've chosen a migration strategy where your users no longer need to access your self-managed instance.
To do this, in Confluence Server, go through each section and remove any permissions that grant more than "read-only" access. In Jira Server, this explicit read-only mode does not exist, but you can set it manually. To do this, create a permission scheme that grants only a "browse" permission that is applied to all projects.
If some of your users continue to work in Server products after the migration, you will need to undo these precautions after successful completion.
Execute the production migration
It’s been weeks and months since you’ve planned and prepared your Cloud migration - now it's finally time to execute step-by-step your migration plan. Are you using Cloud Migration Assistant for your production migration? Then take a look at the documentation for the Jira or Confluence Cloud Migration Assistant. Atlassian also offers documentation for the Bitbucket migration.
Support is not far away!
Do you feel overwhelmed by conducting an independent app assessment or by the migration guide and don't really know where to start? No problem, if you have any questions or problems, feel free to contact us! As a long-standing Atlassian Platinum Solution Partner, we are happy to advise you on all aspects of your migration. Just write us an email or use the contact form below.
By the way: Atlassian has answered the most frequently asked questions about standalone app evaluation in their FAQ.
Source: Atlassian 2022
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