From Data Center to Atlassian Government Cloud: Everything Public Sector Leaders Need to Know

For public sector organizations using Atlassian Data Center, cloud migration is becoming an important planning priority. Atlassian has announced that impacted Data Center products will reach end of life on March 28, 2029. At that point, affected subscriptions will expire and impacted products will become read-only.

The transition timeline includes three key milestones:

• March 30, 2026: End of new Data Center license and Marketplace app sales to new customers
• March 30, 2028: End of new license sales, expansions and Marketplace app sales to existing customers
• March 28, 2029: Data Center end of life for impacted products

For eligible U.S. government agencies and organizations supporting government work, Atlassian Government Cloud (AGC) provides a cloud environment built for government security and compliance needs.

Moving from Data Center to AGC, however, requires more than moving data. Agencies need to review applications, workflows, integrations, identity management, governance, security requirements and user adoption before migration begins.

What Is Atlassian Government Cloud?

Atlassian Government Cloud is a separate cloud environment designed for eligible U.S. government agencies and organizations working with the U.S. government for government-related purposes.

AGC supports core Atlassian products, including:

• Jira for work and project management
• Jira Service Management for IT and enterprise service management
• Confluence for documentation and knowledge management

AGC is FedRAMP Moderate authorized and is designed to support government security and compliance requirements.

Atlassian positions Government Cloud across public sector use cases such as service management, DevSecOps, program management and knowledge management.

For agencies currently operating on Data Center, AGC provides a path to cloud adoption while addressing government-specific requirements.

Why Data Center Customers Should Start Planning Now

March 2029 may appear distant, but large government Atlassian environments often contain years of configurations and dependencies.

A typical environment may include:

• Jira projects and Confluence spaces
• Custom workflows and fields
• Jira Service Management portals
• Marketplace applications
• Internal and external integrations
• Automation rules
• Permission structures
• Large user directories

Each of these areas can affect migration scope and timelines. Starting early gives agencies time to determine what should move, what needs modification and what can be retired before migration.

Rather than copying every Data Center configuration into AGC, organizations can also use the migration program to review outdated workflows, inactive projects, unused fields and legacy integrations.

Who Can Use Atlassian Government Cloud?

AGC is different from Atlassian's standard commercial cloud environment. Eligibility is generally limited to U.S. government agencies and organizations working with the U.S. government for government-related purposes.

Organizations should confirm eligibility early in the planning process.

AGC also follows a shared-responsibility model. Atlassian manages specific platform, infrastructure and compliance responsibilities, while customers remain responsible for areas such as access controls, configurations, integrations, identity management and data governance.

For government organizations, this means strong internal governance remains essential after moving to cloud.

What Does a Data Center-to-AGC Migration Involve?

A successful migration can generally be organized into six stages.

1. Assess the Current Environment

Start by reviewing:

• Projects and spaces
• Users and groups
• Marketplace apps
• Integrations
• Permissions
• Automation
• Custom configurations
• Authentication
• Business-critical workflows

This assessment helps define migration scope, dependencies and effort.

2. Build the Migration Plan

Once the environment is documented, define what will move, when it will move and who owns each activity.

The migration plan should cover:

• Scope and priorities
• Technical dependencies
• Security requirements
• Testing
• User communication
• Cutover approach
• Post-migration support

Large agencies may also need to evaluate whether a phased migration is more appropriate than a single cutover.

3. Prepare Data and Configuration

Before migration, review what actually needs to move. Inactive projects, outdated spaces, unused accounts, duplicate fields and unnecessary integrations can add complexity without providing ongoing value.

This stage is also a good opportunity to review project standards, permission models and administration practices.

4. Test Before Production Migration

Testing should confirm that migrated projects, workflows, permissions, applications, integrations, authentication and business processes operate as expected.

User Acceptance Testing should involve the appropriate platform administrators, security teams, service owners and business users.

Testing also helps identify differences between Data Center and AGC before production cutover.

5. Execute the Migration

Once testing is complete, the production migration can begin.

A migration runbook should define:

• Responsibilities
• Cutover timing
• Communication steps
• Validation activities
• Escalation procedures
• Business continuity requirements

Mission-critical services may require additional planning to reduce disruption during the migration window.

6. Validate and Support Adoption

Migration does not end when data reaches AGC. Teams should verify user access, content, workflows, permissions, integrations and service portals.

Administrators should also support users as they adjust to differences between Data Center and Government Cloud.

Marketplace Apps Require Early Review

Marketplace applications can significantly affect migration planning. Not every Data Center Marketplace app is available in AGC, so agencies should create an application inventory during the assessment stage.

For each app, determine:

• Is it still required?
• Which teams depend on it?
• Is an AGC-compatible version available?
• Can its data be migrated?
• Does it meet security requirements?
• Is there an alternative if it cannot move?

Reviewing apps early can prevent unexpected changes later in the migration program.

Identity and Access Need Separate Planning

Identity management also requires early attention. AGC uses an identity provider for user access through single sign-on. Agencies should review users, groups, administrative roles, email addresses, provisioning rules and inactive accounts before migration.

Identity planning should happen alongside application and data planning because access controls affect nearly every part of the target environment.

Use Migration as an Opportunity to Improve Governance

Many Data Center environments have grown over several years and may include duplicate workflows, unused fields, outdated permissions, abandoned projects and applications that are no longer needed.

Migration creates an opportunity to review these areas and establish stronger standards for:

• Project creation
• Workflow design
• Access management
• Service management
• Knowledge management
• Administration
• Application governance

The goal should be to build an AGC environment around current operational requirements rather than recreate every historical Data Center decision.

How Clovity Can Support the Journey

Moving from Data Center to AGC requires coordination across Atlassian administrators, security teams, application owners, business leaders, Marketplace vendors and end users.

As an Atlassian Platinum Solution Partner, Clovity can support public sector organizations across key stages, including:

• AGC readiness assessments
• Data Center environment analysis
• Marketplace app reviews
• Migration planning
• Jira and Confluence migration
• Jira Service Management configuration
• Testing and validation
• Governance planning
• Post-migration support

Start With an AGC Readiness Assessment

For public sector leaders, the first question should not simply be, “When should we migrate?”

A better starting point is: “What needs to happen before our organization can migrate successfully?”

Understanding the current Data Center footprint, confirming AGC eligibility, reviewing apps and integrations, preparing identity architecture, cleaning existing data and testing critical workflows can provide a stronger foundation for the move.

With the Data Center end of life scheduled for March 28, 2029, agencies have a defined timeline to prepare.

Organizations that begin planning early can approach AGC migration as a structured program built around long-term operational needs.

📧 Contact us at marketing@clovity.com or visit 🌐 www.clovity.com to get started today.