Overview of Atlassian Data Residency Options
Saying that Atlassian supports data residency is a bit of a blanket statement. Data residency (in certain regions) is supported for certain products on certain plans.
Atlassian Products Supporting Data Residency
Atlassian currently supports data residency for Jira, Confluence, Jira Service Management and Jira Product Discovery. Adding data residency to Bitbucket (target date 2026), and Goals and Projects (planned for 2025) is also on the roadmap, and data residency for Rovo is expected to be released in the second quarter of this year.
Atlassian Plans with Data Residency
Data residency is available for Enterprise, Standard, and Premium plans, allowing teams of any size to manage where their data is stored.
Atlassian’s Data Residency Regions
Atlassian currently offers data residency on AWS servers in the following regions:
- Australia
- Canada
- EU (Dublin or Frankfurt)
- Germany
- India
- Japan
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Switzerland
- UK
- US (California or Virginia)
What are the Benefits of using Data Residency in Atlassian Products?
Data residency is one of many features Atlassian has deployed to encourage Cloud adoption in organizations that are resistant out of concerns over losing control of their data. Along with promoting the shift to Cloud, data residency helps organizations comply with regulatory frameworks, and build trust among their customers.
Compliance
The biggest reason for enabling data residency is because you have to. From GDPR to state by state rules in the US, there are a whole host of regulations around how data is used, transferred and stored. Specific industries, such as health care or finance, that deal with sensitive information may have additional levels of required data protections. Data residency is an important tool in helping organizations comply with these regulations.
Trust
Perhaps equally important, data residency can help inspire trust among your customers. We may feel secure knowing that our data is stored in Germany, but more concerned if it’s stored in a less regulated region. Offering data residency is one of many Atlassian initiatives to increase trust and a sense of assurance in Atlassian and their cloud infrastructure.
Performance
Will data residency improve your Jira instance’s performance? Maybe or maybe not. It depends on the distance between your users and the location you’ve chosen to have your data hosted. Here’s what Atlassian says on the subject:
Atlassian uses our global infrastructure presence to host data as close to customers as possible in order to achieve maximum performance. While data residency provides an additional level of certainty that data will not leave a specific geographic area, our cloud infrastructure is designed to give global customers the best possible experience. Enabling data residency may lead to slower overall performance for users located outside of the designated geographic area.
What About Data Residency in Atlassian Marketplace Apps
One of the things that make Jira and Confluence such powerful and flexible tools is the fact that they can be enhanced by any number of Atlassian Marketplace apps, adding all sorts of functionality. But of course those apps collect, process and store data too. So….
How do you know if an Atlassian Marketplace app supports data residency?
The easiest way to know if a given app supports data residency is to look at the Privacy & Security tab on the Marketplace listing. It will tell you if data residency is supported, and in which regions you can choose to store your data.
Note that some Marketplace vendors may not have completed the Privacy & Security tab. In that case, you may need to dig into the app’s documentation for an answer. You might also want to consider investigating the app’s other “trust signals” (more about this below) to ensure that it meets your organizations security requirements.
How do you move Atlassian Marketplace app data?
If you’re installing a new app that supports data residency in the region where your Jira data is currently stored, it should configure the region automatically to match your Jira data. However, if you’re already using an app and it adds data residency, or a new region that you would like to store your data in, there are a few hoops to jump through:
- Go to admin.atlassian.com.
- Go to the Security tab and select Data residency on the left nav bar.
- Select the appropriate organization and click Set location.
- You’ll be shown an overview of the process.
- Select the location where you want your data to be stored, ensuring it is one of the data residency locations supported by your app(s).
- Select the time window when you would like the data move to take place. Note that data residency moves need to be requested at least three days in advance and can require significant (up to 24 hours) downtime.
- The next screen will show you which apps can migrate their data to the desired location.
- You’ll see an overview page. Verify that the information is correct and click Submit request.
- Once the move is complete for your Jira instance, navigate again to Security > Data residency.
- Click on the …menu for the appropriate instance and select Move eligible apps.
Where Does Data Residency Fit with Other Atlassian “Trust Signal”
Bringing transparency to where app data is stored is just one way Atlassian is working to increase confidence in the security of Marketplace Cloud apps. In addition to data residency, consider the following “trust signals” when vetting apps:
- Does the app participate in the Atlassian Bug Bounty program?
The Bug Bounty program is a collaboration between Atlassian and Marketplace Partners which crowdsources vulnerability discovery methods available through bug bounty. Participation in the Bug Bounty program is included on the right panel on the Overview tab of the Marketplace listing. - Is the app “Cloud Fortified”?
Atlassian awards the Cloud Fortified badge (a cute little castle) to apps meeting security, reliability and support requirements:- Participate in the Bug Bounty program
- Have completed the Privacy & Security tab on their Marketplace listing
- Demonstrate core capability Service Level Objectives (SLOs) and tests
- Have an incident management process in place
- Provide a support point of contact
- Respond to a critical, high-severity support ticket within one day (24 hours), 5 working days a week in Marketplace Partner local timezone.
- Does the vendor have any certifications?
Any compliance certifications the vendor has such ISO27k, SOC2 and FedRamp will be listed on Privacy & Security tab on the app’s Marketplace listing. - Does the vendor provide a trust center?
Atlassian encourages vendors to offer a trust center (for example: https://trust.herocoders.com/), where customers can view audit reports, penetration tests, policies and other information related to app security. - Is the app built on Forge?
In 2021 Atlassian created Forge, an app development platform, where vendors can create apps with all app data processed and stored in the Atlassian infrastructure. This includes several advantages such as serverless architecture as well as, baked in data residency and security measures. As Forge matures, more apps built on the Forge platform will become available in the Marketplace. In 2025 Atlassian will begin showing the “Runs on Atlassian” badge on the Marketplace listings for apps built on the Forge platform.
Data residency, and other Atlassian trust signals are designed to ensure you can use the Atlassian Cloud ecosystem with confidence. Marketplace apps that meet these trust criteria allow you to greatly expand the functionality of Jira, while still having your data secure and protected.
