If you’re thinking about hosting your Atlassian tools in the cloud, you’re far from alone – a whopping 95 percent of new Atlassian customers choose cloud over server or Data Center. And of those who start on-prem and make the move to cloud, 90 percent say they’d recommend making the switch.
So, why are these customers so passionate about cloud? What benefits are drawing them in? And how does cloud really stack up against server or Data Center deployments, according to those who’ve experienced both?
In a survey by TechValidate, we asked 320+ Atlassian customers who made the move to cloud. Here’s what they had to say:
Cloud versus server and Data Center
How does cloud compare to server and Data Center? When we asked our customers, the resounding answer is that cloud is better – or at least equal – on everything from innovation to security.
In fact, 91 percent say security is better or equal on cloud. 92 percent say compliance is better or equal. And a whopping 97 percent say innovation, reliability, and change management are better or equal on cloud.
As one customer told us: “The stability and security is substantially better than we achieved on-premise.” – Jarrett Prosser, Leader Engineer, Rollercoaster Digital
Why businesses choose cloud
The top reason for moving to the cloud is cost savings, according to 65 percent of customers surveyed.
If you’ve been paying attention, you probably aren’t surprised. After all, IT pros report an average savings of 20 percent. Companies like Nextiva boast $50,000+ in annual savings post-migration.
Our cost analysis easily showed that we could spend less per year on cloud than server, as well as get more features and integrations and less downtime. It was an easy, no-brainer decision to make the jump.
Marcus Hecht, IT Professional with ClearlyRated
Other top reasons for moving to cloud include eliminating manual upgrades (62 percent), improving performance (33 percent), and supporting remote work (31 percent) – a factor that became even more important during the 2020 pandemic.
The top benefits of cloud
So, do the benefits of cloud deliver on customer expectations? The data says yes.
60 percent of customers say they have peace of mind around security and version upgrades post-migration, and 35 percent say they’ve reduced their total cost of ownership.
And the benefits don’t stop there – 97 percent of those surveyed say they’ve realized at least one benefit since migrating to cloud.
Advantages that pack a punch
When we asked customers to elaborate on the benefits that had the greatest impact on their organization, the words that came up most often were security, access, time, and features.
Over and over again, we heard people talk about the ease of maintenance, the removal of manual upgrades, and the time it saves their teams, saying things like, “Not having to do upgrades [has] been extremely helpful” and “[This move] has freed up our time so that we can focus on improving our own software instead of babysitting on-premise infrastructure.”
Security also got a lot of love in our survey, with customers lauding Atlassian Access, SSO, and the ability to get secure access without a VPN. And collaboration got its fair share of praise too, with customers saying “we can collaborate across teams that previously could not” and “Due to COVID-19…[it is] great to have all of this in the cloud so everybody can collaborate from home.”
Time to value with cloud
So, the benefits of cloud are pretty substantial, but how long exactly does it take to realize those benefits after a migration? What’s the lead time on your ROI?
The answer is all good news: for 75 percent of respondents, it took less than three months to start reaping the benefits of cloud. And 37 percent say it took less than one month.
Even better, more than one-third of IT organizations say migration was easier and faster than expected. So not only are benefits quick to show up post-migration, but the migration itself is often simpler and quicker than people expect.
Surprise! Cloud is even better than you thought
Speaking of migration being easier and faster than most IT pros expect:
Forty percent of IT pros said the migration process was easier than they’d anticipated, 33 percent said it was faster, and 29 percent said the end user experience was better.
Our teams are working hard on new tools and features that will simplify and speed up migration even more, so we fully expect those numbers to keep climbing.
Saving big with Atlassian cloud
It’s been clear for a long time that cloud can boost profits, reduce costs, and save companies boatloads of time for both tech teams and end users.
Here’s the proof: 53 percent of customers surveyed said their end users spend at least 11 percent less time on tasks in cloud compared to server. A whopping 83 percent of customers said moving to cloud saves their admins time.
And as for financial savings, 54 percent saved money they’d been spending to maintain on-premise hardware.
Considering a migration?
Ninety percent of Atlassian customers who made the switch say they’d recommend our cloud products. If you’re planning a migration of your own, check out our Cloud Migration Center and our step-by-step guide through the migration process.