Are you Atlassian Cloud ready?
If not, you’re in luck, as this was the topic of our recent webinar (hosted alongside Atlassian and our consultancy colleagues, Automation Consultants). You can watch the on-demand session right here.
There are two pretty big reasons why teams to start their Cloud migration planning as soon as possible.
The first is because Atlassian Data Center (DC) users are facing a deadline. Atlassian is sun-setting DC products in March 2029.
The second reason is that audit and optimizing your instances now will result in a smoother, faster migration overall.
We don’t want organizations to miss out on this vital prep time. So, in the webinar, we ran through Cloud readiness tools and tips to help you.
In today’s blog post, we’ll cover just three of the key takeaways:
- How to accelerate configuration clean-up
- Cloud success looks different for everyone
- The formula for smooth migrations
What does your Atlassian Cloud readiness roadmap look like? Watch the full recording now to find out where you are in your migration prep journey.
1. You can make your pre-migration clean-up easier
It is so important to spend time before your migration to clean up and optimize your existing instance configuration.
That’s why you need to use this preparation time wisely. By reviewing duplicate data, inactive users, and empty spaces, you can ensure that only the data you really need and want is migrated over.
But this sounds like a ton of manual work and effort, right?
Enter Optimizer for Jira.
What is Optimizer for Jira?
Optimizer for Jira is an award-winning Atlassian Marketplace app, created by our team here at AppFox. It’s a tool designed to help Jira Admins to understand, optimize and maintain a well-managed instance. It’s particularly useful ahead of a migration as a Cloud readiness tool, or for instances which are growing quickly in size.
How can you use Optimizer as an Atlassian Cloud readiness tool?
Optimizer is a valuable migration preparation and Cloud readiness tool because it equips you with two powers: Visibility and action.
Using Optimizer for Jira for visbility
In the webinar, we started off with the Optimizer Health Check feature. This offers you instant visibility overview of your instance health. It highlights problem areas, such as duplicate fields, inactive screens or empty spaces.
What’s super useful is that Optimizer Health Checks are configurable. What looks good (or not) to your teams, might be different for another. Inactive fields, for example. One organization might want to be notified of all fields that are inactive after a month, whereas for others that threshold might be higher – say six months. You can configure these reporting metrics directly in the Health Check settings.
Taking Cloud readiness action with Optimizer for Jira
Once you know where the problems identified in a health check lie, you can address them.
Here at AppFox, we know that one of the key causes of Jira complexity is custom field and label sprawl – unused fields, duplicates, or those which are too broad in scope. You want to get this in check ahead of a Cloud migration.
Optimizer enables merge fields config (for merging labels and custom fields), alongside bulk actions, such as deletion. This removes the manual burden for Admins, and makes it easier and quicker for your instance to reach Cloud readiness.
Spotlight on Rovo for Optimizer
Brand new, and embedded in the Optimizer app – it’s time to say hello to our Optimizer for Jira Rovo Agent.
We’ve designed this Rovo Agent to complement Optimizer, not to replace it.
You can use the Optimizer Rovo Agent to ask it questions around your datasets, such as your health check histories. Rather than combing through manually for patterns, for example, you can ask the Rovo Agent, via natural language prompts, to analyze the data for you.
Examples could be:
- Rovo, what health checks can I improve on?
- Rovo, what order should I tackle these items?
- Rovo, what problem has most negatively impacted our Optimizer health check score?
Rovo is context-aware and provides not only informative answers, but also the rationale behind them.
Ultimately, Optimizer for Jira helps teams move from a reactive Jira clean-up in advance of a migration, to a long-term Jira strategy.
Put simply, it’s a powerful app in your Atlassian Cloud readiness toolkit.
What other lessons did we learn in the webinar?
2. Every organisation has a different definition of Cloud success
Our colleagues at AC have worked with a super wide range of organisations moving from DC to the Atlassian Cloud, and each of them have had different a definition of success.
A global shipping and logistics firm, for example, wanted to move away from tool-sprawl and inconsistency, and instead embed a unified Cloud platform that supported delivery
For an international not-for-profit, meanwhile, cost was the most significant success metric. AC delivered annual cost-savings of $500k per annum.
Finally, AC’s banking client’s long-term goal wasn’t around cost or speed, but instead managing risk, compliance and governance.
Those are just three examples of what Cloud success looks like in different environments. Have you defined your long-term Atlassian Cloud goals?
3. But there is a formula for a smooth migration
We admit it – the word ‘formula’ may be a bit strong here, as every Cloud migration is different.
However, over the years we’ve recognised a pattern that consistently results in a smoother, faster migration processes, and delivers long-term success.
- Preparation comes first
- Clean-ups reduce risk and cost
- Cloud readiness looks different for everyone
Do you have your Atlassian Cloud readiness toolkit ready?
If your Atlassian Cloud migration is on the horizon, start preparing now. Use this time to engage your stakeholders, begin a robust configuration clean-up and optimization, and identify what Cloud readiness looks like to you.
With the right Cloud readiness tooling and team of experts beside you, your migration can be a much smoother and easier experience than you’d expect. We’re an award-winning Atlassian Marketplace app vendor, whilst the good folks at Automation Consultants also have impressive Cloud credentials. As an Atlassian Platinum Solution partner, and with Atlassian Cloud Specialized status, they’re a a safe pair of hands to guide you through your Cloud migration.
Whether you need guidance around config optimization and Atlassian Cloud readiness, or you’re looking for a dedicated team of experts to lead you through your Cloud migration from start to finish, we’re all here to help.
