What Is Atlassian Government Cloud (AGC)? A Guide for U.S. Public Sector IT Leaders
Modernizing the cloud is now more than just a technology fix in the public sector. In the cloud, government organizations need to juggle modernization, security, compliance, data governance, operational resilience, and mission delivery. The study by Atlassian also shows that this change can have a huge impact on the bottom line, with over 35% of the organizations studied seeing a reduction in their security incidents or escalations each month and a return on investment over a three-year period.
This is where Atlassian Government Cloud (AGC) comes into play. AGC offers a government-secure and compliant environment for U.S. government agencies and organizations working with the U.S. government. It is FedRAMP Moderate authorized and supports Jira, Jira Service Management and Confluence. AGC is not just a cloud environment for public-sector IT leaders, it's an operating model with its own considerations for application availability, security boundaries, migration and governance.
AGC Creates a Separate Government Cloud Environment
Government Cloud is a distinct environment for government applications, services, customer data, and app provisioning, according to Atlassian. The government also uses the environment via a unique Atlassian Government account, which is different from accounts that are used for commercial Atlassian Cloud applications.
The environment is mostly in AWS us-east-1 and some components are replicated in us-west-2 for reliability. Data flow between the Government environment and external services is controlled, and there is extra control on the flow of federal data out of the environment.
In the enterprise architecture, the separation involves several aspects that have to be evaluated for AGC in particular:
- Identity and access: Government accounts, authentication and administrative access must be in line with the AGC environment.
- Integrations: Integrations that are already in place should be tested and not taken for granted to be the same as what is available in commercial Cloud.
- Data movement: Data transfers between AGC and external services should be considered further.
- Marketplace apps: App availability and authorization need to be evaluated within the government environment.
- External services: Third-party services outside of AGC must be evaluated for government security and governance needs.
- Administration: Administrative controls and access models may be different from commercial Atlassian Cloud.
The bottom line for public sector IT is that AGC is not just a government version of commercial Atlassian Cloud, but is a completely different environment.
FedRAMP Moderate Establishes the Compliance Foundation
Authorized under the FedRAMP Moderate framework, AGC provides a cloud environment designed to meet the needs of U.S. government organizations. Jira, Jira Service Management, and Confluence are available in the authorized environment, as identified by Atlassian.
The authorization provides the security foundation, but customers still have security responsibilities. This is where the shared responsibility model becomes important. Organizations must manage areas such as access, configurations, data, integrations, and other customer-specific security requirements.
AGC is a shared responsibility environment. Some security and compliance controls are managed by Atlassian, some are managed by customers, and some are shared between the provider and customer. Atlassian has a FedRAMP Moderate level of responsibility as outlined on its Customer Responsibility Matrix.
For government IT teams, it translates to security planning being a component of the implementation process. The agency's security posture includes configuration, access controls, connected services, data management, application governance and organizational processes.
Jira, JSM, and Confluence Form the Core AGC Application Landscape
The current AGC application set is deliberately defined.
Atlassian currently makes Jira, Confluence, and Jira Service Management available within Government Cloud. Other Atlassian applications and collections are not currently available, and Atlassian continues to expand feature parity with its commercial Cloud environment.
Each application contributes a different layer to the government technology environment.
Jira Government Cloud
Jira provides project and work management capabilities for teams managing programs, projects, development work, and operational initiatives. Available capabilities include workflows, boards, forms, plans, calendars, automation, audit logs, and other work-management functions.
Jira Service Management (JSM)
Jira Service Management provides the service-management layer, with capabilities including queues, SLAs, approvals, forms, knowledge bases, incidents, on-call schedules, Assets, services, change calendars, and change-risk assessment.
Confluence Government Cloud
Confluence provides the knowledge and collaboration layer, supporting pages, blogs, folders, comments, content management, analytics, and organizational knowledge-sharing capabilities.
Together, these applications can connect work management, service operations, and organizational knowledge within the same government-focused environment.
Feature Parity Has to Be Part of the Architecture Discussion
Atlassian's current feature-availability documentation shows that some commercial capabilities are unavailable in AGC. For example, JSM currently does not include virtual service agents, deployment tracking, or deployment gating in Government Cloud. Confluence capabilities such as databases and whiteboards are also currently unavailable.
The differences extend into platform capabilities and integrations. Atlassian maintains a specific availability matrix because features may be unavailable, adapted for FedRAMP Moderate requirements, or awaiting additional regulatory approval.
Key considerations include:
- JSM: Some commercial capabilities are unavailable.
- Confluence: Certain collaboration features are limited.
- Integrations: Availability may differ from commercial Cloud.
- Feature readiness: Capabilities can change as regulatory approvals evolve.
This makes feature-level assessment an important part of solution design. Agencies should map required capabilities against the current AGC feature set before finalizing workflows, integrations, migration scope, or user experience.
Marketplace Applications Add Another Governance Layer
Some Marketplace applications are supported in Government Cloud, but not treated as they would be in the commercial cloud.
However, in this statement, Atlassian lists compatible Marketplace apps as not being automatically FedRAMP Moderate. Organizations might require a security evaluation to be done by the Marketplace partner and might have to approve the application for their environment.
AGC customers can only install Marketplace apps by Atlassian support teams or certified partners. Installation and deployment costs may change too, according to Atlassian.
This shifts the application selection from being just about an add-on to the government architecture.
The assessment should cover:
- Data handled by the application
- External data flows
- Authentication and access requirements
- Permissions
- Integration endpoints
- AGC compatibility
- Agency-specific security requirements
This applies to external integrations and webhooks as well. Integrations are evaluated for FedRAMP compliance before being made available by Atlassian, while external webhook URLs need to be security assessed.
Eligibility and Procurement Shape the Starting Point
AGC is intended specifically for U.S. government use.
Atlassian states that purchase and adoption are restricted to U.S. government agencies and organizations that work with the U.S. government and will use the environment for government-related work.
There are also product-specific minimum user tiers. Jira and Confluence Government Cloud start at 201+ users, while Jira Service Management Government Cloud starts at 26+ agents.
These requirements should be addressed early because eligibility, procurement, licensing, user counts, and application scope influence the overall implementation model.
For agencies with existing commercial Atlassian environments, the commercial subscription itself does not become FedRAMP Moderate simply because the organization is a government customer. Atlassian states that commercial Cloud apps are separate from Government Cloud and that customers seeking the FedRAMP Moderate environment need to migrate their data into AGC.
Target Architecture Should Come Before Migration Execution
A successful government-cloud transition starts with the target environment rather than the migration tool.
The architecture needs to account for the agency's existing Atlassian footprint and the constraints of the destination environment. This includes applications, user identities, permissions, integrations, Marketplace dependencies, data structures, workflows, and security controls.
A practical target architecture should establish:
- Identity and access: Define authentication, provisioning, administrative roles, and access policies within the government environment.
- Application architecture: Map Jira, JSM, and Confluence capabilities to the agency's operational requirements.
- Data architecture: Identify what information moves into AGC, how it is structured, and which datasets require cleanup or transformation.
- Integration architecture: Identify systems that connect to Atlassian and determine whether each integration is available and appropriate for AGC.
- Security architecture: Map customer responsibilities under the shared responsibility model and establish agency-specific controls.
- Governance architecture: Define ownership for administration, Marketplace applications, configurations, integrations, and ongoing compliance.
This approach prevents migration from becoming a simple replication exercise.
The Migration Path Runs From Assessment to Operations
Atlassian's documented migration framework provides a useful foundation for government organizations moving from Data Center into AGC.
The process is organized around six stages:
Assess → Plan → Prep → Test → Migrate → Post-Migration
Different phases have different roles:
- The assessment phase examines the existing footprint, dataset, and migration requirements. Planning establishes the migration strategy, scope, and requirements.
- Preparation covers activities such as data cleanup and pre-migration readiness.
- Testing includes migration validation and user acceptance testing before production migration.
- The final stages cover production migration, validation, post-migration activities, and cloud adoption.
- Commercial Cloud-to-AGC migrations follow a similar need for detailed preparation, with Atlassian documenting differences in available applications, Marketplace apps, integrations, and data parity.
The important distinction is that migration execution should follow the target architecture—not define it.
AGC Readiness Extends Beyond Technical Migration
A technically successful migration does not automatically create an operationally ready government environment.
Readiness needs to cover five connected areas.
1. Eligibility and Procurement: Confirm organizational eligibility, user requirements, licensing, procurement channels, and application scope.
2. Application Readiness: Map required Jira, JSM, and Confluence capabilities against current AGC availability and identify feature gaps early.
3. Security Readiness: Establish customer responsibilities, identity requirements, access controls, Marketplace assessments, integration requirements, and data-handling controls.
4. Migration Readiness: Assess the current environment, data, configurations, integrations, workflows, and dependencies before creating the migration sequence.
5. Operational Readiness: Prepare administrators, support teams, governance processes, user adoption plans, and ongoing platform management.
This creates a more complete readiness model than treating migration as a one-time technical project.
AGC Can Connect Work, Service Delivery, and Knowledge
The strategic value of the environment comes from the relationship between its core applications.
Jira is able to handle project management and work implementation. Jira Service Management can be used to support service operations. Confluence can be used to provide the knowledge layer to support users, teams, procedures and operational documentation.
For government organizations that have complicated programs and widely dispersed teams, this is a chance to move these activities towards a more connected technology environment.
It's not just the number of applications that matters, it's about three applications in one government cloud offering. The greater potential benefit is in developing workflow, information architecture, permissions and governance in such a way that the applications align to the agency's operating model as a whole.
Clovity’s Approach to AGC Readiness
To move to Government Cloud, one must have the knowledge and skills of Atlassian, public sector savvy, migration discipline, and security-conscious architecture.
Clovity is an Atlassian Platinum Solution Partner, assisting federal and SLED organizations in the modernization of their Atlassian solutions. Clovity won Government Americas, the title of Atlassian Partner of the Year 2026, for its government solutions.
Clovity provides support to government organizations in the process of assessing, planning, implementing and operating, covering:
- AGC readiness assessment: Evaluate the current Atlassian environment, application footprint, dependencies, and migration requirements.
- Government Cloud architecture: Design Jira, JSM, and Confluence environments around agency-specific security and operational requirements.
- Migration planning and execution: Support transitions from Data Center or commercial Cloud into AGC.
- Jira Service Management implementation: Configure service workflows, knowledge, assets, SLAs, incidents, and change processes.
- Integration and Marketplace assessment: Review third-party dependencies, data flows, compatibility, and security considerations.
- Governance and optimization: Establish the operating practices needed to manage the environment after migration.
Build a Clearer Path to Atlassian Government Cloud
Assess the current environment, define the target architecture, and establish a migration path aligned with your agency's security and operational requirements.
