As more organizations move their collaboration tools and critical business operations to the cloud, one key consideration is increasingly shaping digital strategy and procurement decisions: data residency.
Where your data lives — and who has jurisdiction over it — has a direct impact on your legal compliance, security posture, and employee privacy. For companies using Atlassian Cloud tools like Jira and Confluence, understanding data residency isn’t just a technical detail, it’s a matter of strategic importance.
This article will help you understand what data residency is, why it matters, how it intersects with data privacy regulations, and what practical steps you can take to align your Atlassian Cloud environment with your organization’s compliance goals.
Data residency refers to the physical or geographic location where an organization’s data is stored and processed. In the cloud context, this means the data centers where vendors like Atlassian host your content, including files, tickets, pages, and potentially user data.
It’s closely tied to, but not the same as:
For mid-to-large enterprises, the implications of data residency go beyond simple geography. Data residency affects multiple domains:
Different countries enforce different privacy and data protection regulations. Enterprises operating in or serving regions like the European Union, Switzerland or the United States often must ensure compliance with local laws such as:
Non-compliance can result in financial penalties, legal exposure, and reputational damage. Ensuring your data stays in a specific region can help mitigate these risks.
Knowing where your data lives reduces uncertainty and strengthens digital trust, with employees, customers, and auditors. This matters even more for organizations in regulated industries like healthcare, finance, or the public sector.
Data residency controls help you:
For many enterprises, digital trust and data transparency are now business differentiators. Demonstrating compliance and control over data flows supports key priorities:
In short: data residency is no longer a compliance box: it’s a strategic pillar for digital trust.
Atlassian now includes data residency controls in all paid cloud plans:
As of 2024, Atlassian allows you to pin your product data to the following regions:
This allows in-scope data like Jira issues, Confluence pages, and attachments to remain within a specific jurisdiction.
It’s important to note that not all data is subject to data residency controls. Atlassian generally supports residency for:
However, app data (data generated by third-party Marketplace apps) often resides outside of these regions unless the app developer specifically supports data residency.
Many enterprises heavily rely on Marketplace apps to extend the functionality of Atlassian products. Yet, not all app vendors support data residency. This means a customer who has pinned their Jira instance to the EU might still have app data stored in the U.S. or another non-compliant region. This gap introduces potential compliance and governance risks and is a critical area to investigate when vetting apps.
At Communardo Products, we build Marketplace apps that are enterprise-ready, secure, and compliant with modern cloud standards. We are committed to supporting data residency and cloud security requirements.
Our apps such as Viewtracker – Analytics for Confluence and User Profiles for Jira/Confluence are specifically built with data privacy and residency in mind. Both apps manage personal data such as user profiles and activity insights, and are engineered to handle this information extremely securely. We ensure that data processing aligns with your compliance goals and regional regulations.
When evaluating your cloud environment, here are key considerations:
Data residency is no longer a niche concern. It is a fundamental part of operating securely and responsibly in the cloud. As your organization evaluates or expands its use of Atlassian Cloud, take the time to understand where your data lives, including both Atlassian-hosted content and third-party app data.
With a clear data residency strategy, you can stay compliant, build customer trust, and prepare your business for the future of cloud collaboration.
Need help evaluating your Atlassian Cloud setup?
Communardo can help you navigate data residency requirements and select apps that align with your compliance goals. Let’s build a secure, compliant future in the cloud — together.
