Moving through a cloud migration requires more than just technical expertise; it requires a cleared structured roadmap. This actionable cloud migration checklist outlines the exact process, divided into six key phases: Assess, Plan, Prepare, Test, Migrate, and Launch. From the initial assessment of your current landscape to the final launch and optimization, this guide provides actionable steps for each stage for migration planning and setting the right expectations.
Overview of Atlassian Migration Program
The Atlassian migration program is a strategic initiative guiding all customers to the modern Atlassian platform infrastructure. This move consolidates innovation on a single platform, enabling faster delivery of AI-powered features while offering enterprise-grade security, scalability, and simplified management. The most critical driver is the fixed end-of-life date for Data Center products on March 28, 2029. Atlassian provides a clear, phased timeline, giving organizations several years to plan a smooth transition from data center to cloud.
Choosing Cloud is not just about meeting a deadline, it’s a strategic upgrade. Atlassian Cloud provides a modern system of work with interconnected apps powered by unified data and intelligent AI. It offers the latest innovations, such as advanced user management through Atlassian Access and new cloud deployment options designed for enterprise needs. This structured program is designed to guide every customer efficiently and confidently to their cloud future.
To secure your cloud migration, check our latest article about Atlassian Data Center Risks.
Assess Your Cloud Migration Path
Before any technical work begins, a thorough cloud migration assessment sets the foundation for a successful migration. This phase is about understanding your starting point, defining your destination, and mapping the journey between them. It’s a critical step to avoid surprises and ensure the move to the cloud aligns with your business goals, security needs, and budget.
Understand the overall migration process
First, get a clear picture of the cloud migration process. This isn’t just a technical “lift-and-shift”; it’s an opportunity to review and improve workflows. Understand key changes in user management, security models, and available features. Review Atlassian’s cloud roadmap to see how the platform is evolving.
Determine your migration timeline
Your timeline is primarily influenced by Atlassian’s deadline of March 28, 2029. However, your specific schedule depends on the size and complexity of your instance. For most organizations, cloud migration planning should start now. Use the multi-year phased timeline to work backward from your target date, allocating ample time for assessment, planning, testing, and execution. Proactive planning helps avoid a last-minute, high-risk rush.
Assemble your migration project team
A successful migration is a team effort. Assemble a core team for cloud migration management that includes a Project Lead, Technical Administrators for your current Jira or Confluence setup, stakeholders from key business units, and your Atlassian contacts. Well-coordinated cross-functional group ensures all technical and business perspectives are covered from the start.
Download the Cloud Migration Assistants for Jira, Confluence, and Bitbucket
You can’t plan a cloud transformation without knowing your starting point. Start by downloading the official Jira Cloud Migration Assistant, Confluence Cloud Migration Assistant and Bitbucket Cloud Migration Assistant. These tools are the first step in your cloud database migration checklist and in conducting a comprehensive audit of your current environment, helping you document the number of sites, projects, users, and all installed Marketplace apps.
Start a free Cloud migration trial
Try a free cloud migration and assess cloud and data center cost differences practically. A detailed financial analysis often reveals that while Data Center has a fixed license cost, Cloud offers significant Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) savings – typically 30-50% – by eliminating hidden infrastructure, labor, and upgrade expenses. Simultaneously, initiate a formal cloud migration security review to ensure the platform meets your organization’s data governance and compliance requirements.
Get in touch with our experts to discuss the details of your migration and receive an initial assessment of your current infrastructure environment.
Build Your Cloud Migration Plan
With a clear assessment completed, the next step is to translate your findings into a concrete, actionable cloud migration plan. This phase is about designing the “how” and the “when,” ensuring every team member knows their role and every task is accounted for in your cloud migration guide.
Everything you need to know about Cloud Migration, check our Atlassian Cloud Migration Made Simple: Expert 2025 Blueprint.
Assemble your team
Formalize your cloud migration management structure by assembling a dedicated, cross-functional team. This team typically includes a Project Owner, a Technical Administrator, Business Unit Representatives, an internal IT/Security contact, and optionally, an experienced Atlassian Solution Partner. A partner can provide invaluable expertise, especially for complex scenarios, helping de-risk the project.
Plan Your Migration
Once your customer has decided to move, the next step is figuring out how to get there and what strategy to follow. In this phase, it’s important to understand the customer’s migration needs and provide advice to help them succeed. By doing this, you can define the best strategy and steps to take. After that, it’s time to prepare everything for the migration – people, data, and environments.
Steps for Customers with Fewer Than 1,000 Users
Start by answering the technical questions needed before kickoff. Help the customer sign up for a free cloud migration license and claim their cloud site URL. Set up the organization in the target environment, then verify the domain and ensure user accounts are claimed. Assemble your internal team and choose the best migration strategy and method. Create a user migration plan and determine the best approach for app migration.
Develop a detailed migration plan and understand the timeline involved. Prepare a plan for logging and handling issues before, during, and after the migration. Discuss the end state for the existing on-premise instance, and coordinate with the customer’s security team regarding IP address allow-listing and application tunnels. Communicate your plan internally and check that any other Atlassian products, like Bitbucket or Bamboo, are on supported versions. Complete pre-migration checklists for Jira, Confluence, and Bitbucket. Finally, draft the migration runbook and enter any necessary support tickets for technical issues.
Steps for Customers with More Than 1,000 Users
Start by answering the technical questions needed before kickoff. Work with your assigned CMM to schedule a kickoff call with the customer. Help the customer sign up for a free cloud migration license and claim their cloud site URL. Set up the organization in the target environment, then verify the domain and ensure user accounts are claimed. Assemble your internal team and choose the best migration strategy and method. Create a user migration plan and determine the best approach for app migration.
Develop a detailed migration plan and understand the timeline involved. Prepare a plan for logging and handling issues before, during, and after the migration. Discuss the end state for the existing on-premise instance, and coordinate with the customer’s security team regarding IP address allow-listing and application tunnels. Communicate your plan internally and check that any other Atlassian products, like Bitbucket or Bamboo, are on supported versions. Complete pre-migration checklists for Jira and Confluence and, if applicable, use the Site Import pre-migration checklist. Finally, attach your draft migration runbook to the MOVE ticket for tracking.
Register for our Cloud Migration demo to define outcomes after each transformation phase, pick a cloud strategy, create a runbook, and use migration assistants.
Final Preparation Migration Phase
During the planning and preparation phase, it’s essential to fully grasp the customer’s migration requirements and offer expert advice and best practices to ensure a smooth transition. This helps outline the most effective migration strategy and the necessary steps to achieve it.
Complete Pre-Migration Items
Meticulously work through the official Atlassian pre-migration checklists for Jira, Confluence, and Bitbucket. A critical task is to clean up your current instance – archive old projects and remove unused apps. This reduces migration time, cost, and complexity. Cloud migration security checklist reduces the attack surface and the volume of data to be secured.
Create a Runbook
Your runbook is the step-by-step playbook for migration day. It should include exact timelines, step-by-step commands, a team contact list, and clear rollback instructions. Share a draft with your Atlassian contacts for review.
Final Preparation Migration Phase
Start by creating sandboxes for testing, ideally separate from the production site. If this isn’t feasible, reach out to Atlassian. Work with the customer to finalize and share the communications plan with Atlassian. Complete the necessary pre-migration checklists for Jira, Confluence, and Bitbucket with the customer. Clean up the self-hosted instance and review anonymous access settings. Ensure that the IP address allow-list and application tunnels are correctly configured. Verify that both you and the customer have the necessary permissions, and ensure the customer’s cloud site has the appropriate user tier. Confirm that Atlassian Access user provisioning is included in the plan.
Create a Runbook
Draft your runbook and share it with Atlassian for review.
Install the Cloud Migration Assistant Apps and Upgrade Your Atlassian Products
Ensure the Cloud Migration Assistant apps are installed, and upgrade any required Atlassian products to the necessary versions.
Create a Communication Plan
Collaborate with the customer to create a comprehensive communication plan and ensure it’s shared with Atlassian.
Prepare Cloud Training Materials
Work with the customer to prepare training materials to help them smoothly transition to the cloud.
Back Up the Data
Ensure all data is backed up before beginning the migration process to avoid any loss of information.
Run the Migration Test
The test run is your final rehearsal before go-live. It validates your entire process and plan in a safe environment.
Execute a full dry run in a cloud sandbox using your runbook, meticulously timing the process to predict your production window. Validate that all apps, custom fields, workflows, and integrations work correctly. Conduct User Acceptance Testing (UAT) with key users from different teams. Finally, update your runbook with any lessons learned and lock in the final production migration date with your Atlassian contact. This step is the best way to de-risk the entire project.
Have you considered a cloud specialization solution partner? We’ll manage your migration every step of the way. Contact us.
Start the Final Migration
Set your on-premise instance to read-only to prevent data loss. Execute the final migration using your chosen method, then migrate or install your apps. Perform a rigorous quality check (QA) on the migrated data and set up AppLinks for integrations. Based on the QA results, make the official go/no-go decision to cut over to the new cloud site. This phase completes the technical transition of your organization to the new cloud environment.
Cloud Migration Launch
This phase activates the new cloud environment for all users and completes the transition.
Redirect all user traffic to the new cloud site URL and decommission the old instance. Send the final launch announcement to all stakeholders. Convert your trial site to a paid production site by enabling cloud billing. Finally, drive adoption by providing targeted training on key new cloud features to ensure long-term success and ROI.
When to Use a Solution Partner
We recommend you work with an Atlassian Solution Partner if you have a more complex migration or:
-
limited internal resources to help with this project
-
a complex merging scenario
-
specific security and compliance needs
-
over 1,000 users to migrate
-
a specific condensed migration timeline
-
five or more business-critical apps to migrate
-
you need help with things outside of the scope of Atlassian support, including User Acceptance Testing, Server upgrades, or user training
-
you need assistance with migration project management, planning, and execution
Softgile specializes in end-to-end Atlassian Cloud migrations – from assessment and planning to execution and post-migration support. Our certified experts minimize downtime, reduce risks, and ensure your teams are ready to work in Cloud from day one.
Contact us for migration services
Cloud Migrations FAQs
1. How is our data protected during an Atlassian Cloud migration?
Your data is protected using industry-standard security practices, including encrypted connections, strict access controls, and continuous monitoring throughout the migration process.
2. Is our data encrypted during migration and storage?
Yes. All data is encrypted both in transit and at rest. Any temporary access required for troubleshooting is limited, logged, and removed after the process is completed.
3. Who can access our Atlassian Cloud environment during migration?
Only authorized roles with an approved support request can access your environment. All access is tightly controlled and regularly reviewed.
4. How does data residency work during migration?
During migration, data may be temporarily processed in secure AWS regions. Once completed, your data follows Atlassian’s data residency controls based on your selected region and plan.
5. What happens to migration data after the process is finished?
Migration data is automatically deleted within defined retention periods. Encrypted backups may be retained briefly for recovery purposes and then permanently removed.
6. Can organizations with restricted or air-gapped environments migrate to the cloud?
Yes. Migration can be performed using controlled methods such as environment cloning or CSV imports, depending on infrastructure and data volume.
7. How is data leakage prevented during migration?
Outbound traffic is continuously monitored using enterprise security tools to detect and prevent unauthorized data movement.
8. Are migration activities logged and auditable?
Yes. All administrative actions and access events are logged, providing full auditability and transparency throughout the migration.
Conclusion: How to Migrate to Cloud Securely?
A secure and successful transition to the cloud is guaranteed by following a disciplined, phased cloud migration checklist that provides control over every critical step – from the initial assessment of your environment and the strategic planning of the move, through the rigorous testing in a sandbox, to the final launch and user enablement. This structured approach ensures risks are managed, data integrity is maintained, and your team is prepared, turning a complex technical project into a predictable and secure business transformation.
By understanding the compelling reasons why Atlassian Cloud is cheaper than Data Center – through significant TCO savings and eliminated hidden costs – and proactively mitigating potential Atlassian Data Center risks related to security, compliance, and operational burden, you can execute your migration with confidence. Following this comprehensive cloud migration guide ensures that every step of your Jira cloud migration and broader platform transition is under control.