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Atlassian Cloud delegates more platform and infrastructure operations to Atlassian; Data Center gives your organization more direct operational control and more responsibility for securing and running the environment. Neither deployment is automatically more secure or compliant. The right choice depends on which controls your organization must operate itself, what evidence it needs, and whether the exact Atlassian products, data, apps, and configuration meet its requirements.
What changes between Cloud and Data Center?
The main difference is not that one option is secure and the other is not. It is where operational responsibility sits. In Cloud, Atlassian operates the hosted platform and the controls it documents, while your organization remains responsible for its users, permissions, information, app choices, and compliant use. With Data Center, your organization operates the deployment and its infrastructure, in addition to configuring the Atlassian applications securely.
| Decision area | Atlassian Cloud | Atlassian Data Center |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting and platform operations | Atlassian operates its hosted platform and underlying environment, as described in its Cloud architecture documentation. | Your organization operates the deployment and self-managed hardware or chosen hosting infrastructure. Atlassian supplies product releases and application-level security fixes; your admins must apply and configure them. |
| Direct infrastructure control | Less direct control over the underlying hosting environment; controls are available through the service and its plans. | More direct choice and control over infrastructure and deployment, with corresponding responsibility for securing and maintaining them. |
| Customer security work | Manage identities, access, customer information, Marketplace apps, and appropriate use of the service. | Also operate infrastructure and network controls, updates, encryption, backups, monitoring, and audits. |
| Data location | Residency options are available for certain products and data scopes; confirm the applicable product documentation. | You choose where to host the environment, subject to your infrastructure and legal constraints. |
| Compliance evidence | Use current Atlassian evidence for the exact product and program, then assess it against your own obligations. | Running Atlassian software in your own environment does not itself establish compliance; your organization must evidence its controls and responsibilities. |
Atlassian’s security practices describe Cloud as multi-tenant: a service can serve multiple customers, with logical separation intended to prevent one customer’s actions from compromising another customer’s data or service. That is not the same as physically separate infrastructure for every customer.
What does Atlassian document about Cloud security?
Atlassian says its Cloud services use AWS as a cloud service provider and describes infrastructure distributed across regions and availability zones. Its published materials describe logical tenant separation, including tenant context mechanisms for Jira and Confluence. These are vendor-described architecture and controls; they do not independently validate a particular customer’s configuration.
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For listed Cloud products, Atlassian states that customer data sent over public networks is encrypted using TLS 1.2 or higher with Perfect Forward Secrecy, and that drives holding data and attachments are protected at rest with AES-256 full-disk encryption. Its Technical and Organisational Security Measures, effective October 7, 2025, also describe least-privilege access, role-based controls, logging and monitoring, and annual external and internal audits. Check the product-specific scope: these statements should not be generalized to every product, feature, integration, data type, or customer-controlled setting.
What security work does Data Center put on your team?
Atlassian’s Data Center security checklist assigns customers responsibility for the deployment and self-managed hardware infrastructure. It calls out ongoing work, not just initial installation:
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- Place systems on appropriately protected private networks and configure network protections such as WAFs or VPNs where required by your architecture.
- Apply released security fixes promptly and keep the products and supporting systems maintained.
- Configure identity and access controls, including MFA and SSO where required, and regularly review permissions.
- Implement encryption and access controls in the environment according to your organization’s policy.
- Perform regular backups and establish operational recovery practices.
- Conduct security audits and retain evidence that the controls are operating.
Atlassian provides secure product releases, application-level security fixes, built-in security features, and configuration guidance. Your administrators still need to upgrade and configure the products, and your infrastructure team owns the surrounding environment. The effort can include hosting, system patching, monitoring, backups, and incident response, depending on the design.
Can you keep Atlassian Cloud data in a particular region?
Atlassian’s Cloud architecture page currently lists data residency for Jira, Jira Service Management, Jira Product Discovery, and Confluence in 11 regions: US, EU, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Switzerland. Availability and in-scope data depend on the product; consult the current architecture and residency documentation for the product you use.
A residency selection alone does not establish that every related activity or data copy stays in that location. If your requirement concerns processing, backups, support access, subprocessors, or legal jurisdiction, verify those specifics rather than treating “residency” as a complete answer. Data Center lets you choose where to host the environment, but that choice does not by itself settle those broader legal or operational questions either.
Does Atlassian Cloud meet your compliance requirements?
There is no useful yes-or-no answer without naming the standard and the service scope. Atlassian says coverage varies by product and compliance program, and can change as programs roll out or products are acquired. Start with the current Compliance FAQ and Atlassian’s Customer Trust Portal resources to obtain the current attestation or report for the service under consideration.
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The FAQ states that Atlassian SOC 2 Type 2 reports cover a 12-month reporting period running from October 1 through September 30. That reporting period is not proof that a specific report covers every Atlassian product or satisfies your organization’s obligations. Match the report to the exact product, plan, region, features and data in use, and audit period. Then assess it alongside your own configuration, third-party apps, contracts, and applicable legal requirements.
The same principle applies to Data Center: infrastructure control can help an organization implement its own requirements, but hosting the software yourself does not make the environment compliant. Your organization must operate and document the applicable controls.
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How much control do you retain over identity and apps?
Cloud shifts hosting operations to Atlassian, but it does not remove customer decisions about who can access the service or what connected apps can do. Atlassian’s data-protection information describes Atlassian Guard capabilities for connecting an identity provider, enforcing SSO and MFA, managing external-user security, and supporting organization-wide identity and access management. Confirm current plan packaging and feature requirements before relying on a particular capability.
Marketplace apps and integrations form a separate part of the security boundary. Their access to data, handling practices, and hosting arrangements are not automatically covered by Atlassian’s platform controls. Atlassian’s migration security and compliance guidance advises customers to evaluate app security and privacy as part of migration planning.
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How should you decide between the deployment models?
- List the control you actually need. Separate infrastructure control from data location, identity policy, application configuration, and audit evidence. These requirements do not necessarily move together.
- Map each requirement to product scope. Identify the Atlassian products, plans, features, data categories, integrations, and regions involved. Check whether the requirement is about residency, exclusive processing, support access, or another specific condition.
- Check the evidence. For Cloud, obtain current attestations and product-level documentation for the relevant service and period. For either deployment, determine what evidence your own organization must produce.
- Assess operational capacity. For Data Center, assign owners and demonstrate that the organization can sustain patching, infrastructure security, access reviews, encryption, backups, monitoring, and audits. For Cloud, assign owners for identity, permissions, customer data, apps, and policy.
- Review the app and identity ecosystem. Confirm identity-provider requirements, external-user rules, plan availability, Marketplace app data access, and integration behavior before selecting a deployment or migrating.
- Choose based on the complete operating model. Cloud is a fit when delegating much of platform operation is valuable and the remaining customer controls and evidence meet requirements. Data Center is a fit when direct infrastructure operation is necessary and the organization can reliably secure and maintain it.
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