When cloud isn’t an option: Replacing Jira Service Management Data Center with Deskpro Private

Jira Service Management is going cloud-only. You don’t have to.

Atlassian is sunsetting Jira Service Management (JSM) Data Center, its on-premise help desk product. They stopped selling new licenses in March 2026 and entered into a three-year “wind-down” period, during which they will no longer release new Data Center features or fix non-critical bugs. Full end-of-life occurs in March 2029. At that time, all Data Center instances become read-only: you can access data, but you can’t make any changes, and Atlassian won’t provide any technical support.

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Atlassian is forcing its Jira Service Management Data Center customers to make a choice: move to the Atlassian Cloud Platform or find a new on-premise provider.

End-of-life timeline for Jira Service Management Data Center:

• September 2025–Atlassian announces it is sunsetting all Data Center products, including Jira Service Management.
• March 2026–Cutoff for new customers to purchase JSM Data Center subscriptions and Marketplace apps. Data Center products enter a “wind-down” period with no new feature releases or non-critical bug fixes.
• March 2028–Cutoff for existing customers to purchase new JSM Data Center subscriptions, license expansions, and Marketplace apps.
• March 2029–JSM Data Center end of life. All Data Center licenses expire and become read-only.

A subset of JSM Data Center customers will no doubt move to the cloud–Atlassian is introducing their Isolated and Government Clouds to meet the compliance requirements of some organizations. However, for many organizations in highly regulated industries or regions with strict data residency requirements, moving to the cloud is simply not an option. For these Jira Service Management users, Atlassian’s cloud mandate introduces unacceptable risk, including:

• Loss of infrastructure control. Your data and systems are hosted outside of your environment. Atlassian’s Isolated and Government Clouds are still Atlassian-managed environments, with Atlassian controlling infrastructure maintenance, updates, and access.
• Data sovereignty conflicts. Atlassian is subject to the US CLOUD Act, meaning they can be compelled to turn over data to the US government regardless of the physical location of their servers. This makes their cloud solutions untenable for highly regulated companies or government agencies in regions with data sovereignty requirements.
• Compliance violations. For organizations with strict “validated state” requirements, the automatic updates and feature changes that are part of the JSM Cloud experience threaten to violate compliance and regulatory safety standards.
• Limited flexibility. If you’ve built complex, custom workflows in your on-premise Jira Service Management instance, you may find those workflows and certain legacy features aren’t supported or are significantly different in Atlassian’s Cloud architecture, impacting how you customize, scale, and adapt your operations.

If your IT or customer support department is currently using Jira Service Management Data Center, you’ll need to work closely with your security and compliance teams to understand your options. And if you determine that you can’t or don’t want to migrate to the cloud, it’s time to look for a new on-premise solution.

We know many current Data Center customers are already searching for an on-premise alternative to Jira Service Management, and we’d like to introduce you to Deskpro Private.

Deskpro Private is a modern help desk built to meet the needs of the organizations with the strictest security, data sovereignty, and compliance requirements. In this guide, we’ll be covering:

• The Deskpro Private basics
• Flexible deployment options
• Secure AI deployment
• IT service desk and customer support capabilities
• How Deskpro supports its Deskpro Private customers

What is Deskpro Private?

Deskpro Private is a modern help desk platform designed for organizations that require full control over security, data, and deployment, without sacrificing the benefits of a modern IT and customer support platform.

You choose the deployment model that works best for your organization, whether that’s in a VPC, sovereign cloud, regional private cloud, or your on-premise environment. Unlike with JSM Data Center, you can optionally power Deskpro’s AI features with the AI models of your choice–including private LLMs–to get the efficiency benefits of AI while still maintaining full control of your data.

Beyond deployment flexibility, Deskpro Private offers:

• A unified omnichannel interface that brings all your support channels into a single workspace, with the ability to triage and manage tickets in the ways that make the most sense for your teams.
• Unlimited automated workflows for ticket routing, escalation, SLAs, responses, and more, enabling your teams to work more efficiently without increasing headcount.
• Fully customizable ticket structures, forms, and help centers so you can create a support environment that reflects the ways your teams actually work.
• Pre-built integrations with major support channels, CRMs, developer tools (including Jira), and business applications, with the ability to add custom integrations via Zapier or API.
• In-house customer support with an average monthly satisfaction score of 99%.

Who is Deskpro Private for?

While not an exhaustive list of the industries Deskpro serves, Deskpro Private is a particularly strong fit for organizations in:

• Financial services
• Life sciences
• Healthcare
• Aerospace and defense
• Manufacturing
• Government

Key use cases:

• Customer support
• IT service desk
• HR & internal support

Choose your deployment model. Stay secure and compliant.

Deskpro Private enables you to choose the deployment model that aligns with your security protocols, compliance requirements, and data residency restrictions:

• Sovereign cloud
• On-premise (in your data center or a colocation facility)
• VPC
• Regional private cloud

If you’re a current JSM Data Center customer who can’t or doesn’t want to move to the Atlassian Cloud, you are most likely looking for an alternative that will let you host your help desk in a sovereign cloud or on-premise, so we’ll go deeper into those two options below.

Sovereign cloud

Deskpro has partnered with AWS EU Sovereign Cloud, an independent cloud for Europe that is backed by strong technical controls, sovereign assurances, and legal protections designed to meet the needs of European governments and enterprises. Deploying Deskpro Private in the AWS EU Sovereign Cloud is a strong option for European JSM Data Center users who cannot migrate to JSM Cloud due to data residency requirements. The AWS EU Sovereign Cloud operates under a parent company that is locally controlled in the EU, led by EU citizens, and subject to local laws. It’s designed to protect its customers from the jurisdictional reach of the US CLOUD Act–something that Atlassian cannot guarantee with its Isolated Cloud.

JSM Data Center customers in other regions with data residency requirements–or in countries with specific needs within the EU–can deploy Deskpro Private in any sovereign cloud or regional private cloud that meets their geographic requirements.

Sovereign clouds are typically operated by regional cloud providers and are run in data centers that are located and operated by personnel in specific sovereign countries or regions. This model is designed to keep data within the sovereign cloud’s region, allowing organizations to meet sovereign standards while benefiting from the expertise and innovation of the cloud provider. Many sovereign cloud providers today also offer access to sovereign AI models that can be used to power Deskpro’s AI features.

Deskpro will be happy to work with you and your team to understand your data residency needs and how we would deploy our help desk platform in your chosen environment.

On-premise

Organizations that need a fully self-hosted help desk can deploy Deskpro Private in their own data centers or colocation facilities, with the option to have a fully air-gapped environment for the most sensitive use cases. This is the most secure deployment option for IT and support teams in regulated industries that need full control of their data and infrastructure.

You can also choose the models you want to power Deskpro Private’s AI features, enabling you to connect private LLMs (more on this in the next section). This means you can take advantage of features like intelligent routing, an AI chatbot, ticket summarization, and suggested responses while keeping all data within your approved security perimeter.

Deskpro has the expertise and structural capabilities to implement Deskpro Private in your environment, meeting the compliance and regulatory requirements that Jira Service Management can no longer satisfy.

Get AI efficiency without the risks

Atlassian has never made it easy for Data Center customers to use AI, even before they announced they were sunsetting all of their Data Center products. Their native AI suite, Atlassian Intelligence, is only available with Cloud products. The only way for JSM Data Center customers to use AI is to integrate third-party apps, which increases tech stack complexity and the surface area for potential cyberattacks. Those not able to integrate third-party tools are left without AI capabilities in JSM Data Center, leading to missed opportunities to automate manual tasks, reduce operational costs, and give human agents more time to focus on high-value activities.

Deskpro Private doesn’t make you choose between AI efficiency gains and security. If you choose the AWS EU Sovereign Cloud or a regional sovereign cloud provider, Deskpro supports all of the AI foundation models available in that cloud environment. For AWS EU Sovereign Cloud, this includes all of the models offered by Amazon Bedrock.

For on-premise deployment, Deskpro takes a bring-your-own-AI approach, which means you select the AI models you want to power our AI features. This includes self-hosted AI models such as:

• Meta’s LLaMA
• Mistral AI
• DeepSeek
• Qwen
• Cohere
• Your own private LLMs

Our approach to AI is designed around the needs of organizations with strict regulatory, compliance, and sovereignty requirements–many of which have been unable to use AI in their help desk before Deskpro Private.

What can you do with AI in Deskpro Private?

• Intelligent ticket routing (sentiment and intent detection)
• Ticket summarization
• Suggested responses and tone refinement
• Help center article generation
• 24/7 multilingual chatbot support

Switching from Jira Service Management Data Center to Deskpro Private isn’t just a lateral move: it’s a chance to take full advantage of AI to elevate your teams and improve your support experience.

AI in Deskpro Private vs. Jira Service Management

IT service desk and customer support capabilities in one platform

Jira Service Management is a service desk platform that offers some customer support capabilities but primarily caters to IT teams. In contrast, Deskpro Private is a unified omnichannel platform for internal and external support teams. With Deskpro Private, you can keep your ticketing and support operations in a single workspace, with customizable permissions and workflows that make it easy to configure the platform for your different support teams.

Omnichannel support

Bring every support channel–email, chat, website forms, social, voice, messaging apps–into a single interface. Deskpro Private doesn’t put plan-based limits on the channels you connect.

Workflow customization and automation

Unlimited automation gives you the flexibility to build and scale processes that streamline your team’s workflows. Automate ticket routing, escalations, SLA alerts, ticket status updates, and more so your team spends less time on manual work and more time providing high-quality support.

Secure AI

Use AI securely by deploying private models or connecting to trusted providers. Integrate your trusted data sources–including help center articles, product guides, websites, and resolved tickets–for accurate, organization-specific outputs.

Customizable help center

Create branded help centers to improve self-service for customers or employees. Integrate your help center with your website chat widget to give users another way to navigate to the content they need.

Pre-built integrations

Out-of-the-box integrations with communication channels, CRM systems, IT tools, and project management systems let you connect Deskpro Private to your self-hosted tech stack and align the platform to the ways you work. If you need something outside the pre-built integration library, Deskpro's open API and webhook support make it straightforward to build custom integrations tailored to your environment.

How Deskpro supports its Deskpro Private customers

Deskpro treats customer support as a core competency–and as a company that runs its own support operations on Deskpro, we have every incentive to get it right. From initial migration through day-to-day operations, Deskpro Private customers have access to hands-on support at every stage: purpose-built server management tooling, a skilled in-house support team, and optional managed services for teams that want to offload maintenance entirely.

Migration

Choose to manage your own migration or use Deskpro’s migration services. Our team regularly works with support teams that need to migrate from their current on-premise help desk to Deskpro Private, and we have the experience necessary to ensure a smooth, secure transition. As part of our migration process, we can work with your team to map and transfer data from Jira Service Management to Deskpro Private. The full process, from planning through execution, is designed to avoid any disruption to your support operations.

Administration

Deskpro Private Controller (DPC), Deskpro’s comprehensive server management software, is designed to make deployment and administration of Deskpro Private straightforward. The DPC interface makes it easy for your admins to add new domains, configure SSL certificates, configure external services such as databases and filesystems, and perform automated backups. It automatically performs security updates to your server and will alert you when new Deskpro updates are available, helping you stay up to date without a heavy lift.

In-house customer support

As a help desk software company, we take customer support seriously (and use Deskpro to manage our own support operations). Our skilled, responsive in-house support team maintains an industry-leading satisfaction score of 99%.

Optional managed services

Reduce your admin team’s load with Deskpro’s optional managed services package delivered by Deskpro’s Partner Network. Our partners handle deployment and maintenance so your IT admins do not have to learn Deskpro administration and have more time to focus on high-value work.

Jira Service Management Data Center is ending. Deskpro Private is stepping up.

Atlassian has adopted a cloud-first stance and is adamant its cloud environments will meet the needs of its current Jira Service Management Data Center customers. In reality, it’s leaving behind customers with strict regulatory, compliance, or sovereignty requirements that aren’t compatible with Atlassian’s cloud infrastructure.

Atlassian may be requiring their Data Center customers to move to the cloud, but that doesn’t mean you have to go with them. Deskpro Private was purpose-built for exactly the environments Atlassian is walking away from. You get a modern, fully-featured help desk with deployment flexibility, optional AI capabilities, and data sovereignty control, i.e., the help desk that your organization actually needs–not a stripped-down version of a cloud product.

The sunsetting of Jira Service Management Data Center is a disruption, but it’s also an opportunity. Organizations that choose to escape the cloud mandate don’t have to settle for outdated technology or accept greater security risks. With Deskpro Private, you can move to a self-hosted platform that matches your security and compliance requirements while giving your IT and support teams the tools to deliver better service than was ever possible with JSM Data Center.

Want to learn more about making the switch to Deskpro Private?

Schedule a demo: deskpro.com/demo