Shadow IT is defined as the use of IT-related hardware or software by an individual without the knowledge of the IT admin. For example, if a user creates a new Bitbucket Cloud workspace within your organization without the knowledge of the organization admin, it can lead to potentially sensitive data being exposed.
To help manage this risk, last year, Atlassian launched product requests, a proactive shadow IT control feature for Jira, Confluence, and Jira Service Management’s (JSM) Enterprise Cloud plans. We are excited to share that we are expanding the power of product requests to Bitbucket. This feature is available with the Bitbucket Premium plan.
If you’re a workspace admin managing Bitbucket users via Atlassian Admin, this feature allows you to prevent users from creating workspaces within Bitbucket Cloud without your approval.
How it works
As an organization admin, you can set up a product requests policy within Atlassian Admin to prevent your users from creating new product instances without your knowledge.
With the launch of this feature, when a user tries to create a new Bitbucket workspace, we ask the user to enter details about how they plan to use the workspace. Admins can review all user requests and approve or deny it.
Accessing the feature
Product requests is available on the left navigation within the Security tab in Atlassian Administration (admin.atlassian.com). Here, admins can set a policy for their covered products. They can choose between:
Require admin review: Users must submit requests for new products, which admins will review and resolve.
Allow new products: Users can create new products outside their managed organization.
- Allow new products: Users can create new products outside their managed organization.
- Require admin review: Users must submit requests for new products, which admins will review and resolve.
If the ‘Require admin review’ option is selected, admins will begin to see requests come in from their users.
They can review each individual request and determine if it is approved, denied, or marked under review.
If approved, the admin will complete the workspace setup, and the user will be notified via email once it’s ready. If a request is denied, the user will be informed of the decision via email.
Beta release
This feature is part of our Enterprise plan offering for Jira, Confluence, and other Atlassian products. Since Bitbucket Cloud doesn’t yet have an Enterprise plan, this feature is tagged as ‘beta’ and will be available to Bitbucket Premium customers. Please note that eligibility to access this feature may change in the future, and we will keep you informed of any updates.
If you have any feedback on the feature – please head to the Bitbucket help menu > “Give feedback” and share your thoughts with us.