18 Jan 2019
How additional licensing costs may affect your IT budget in 2019
by GLiNTECH
What is happening?
Oracle have changed how they licence their Java products and will from Jan 2019 they will be charging for licences to their Long-Term-Support (LTS) versions of Java. These LTS versions of Java are the ones that used to come bundled with Atlassian Server and Data Centre products like Jira, Confluence and Bitbucket (see table below).
How does this affect me?
Atlassian products all require Java (a programming language) in order to work. If you installed Jira, Confluence or Bitbucket (Server or Data Centre) before January 2019, it came bundled with Oracle JDK 8. To continue using Oracle Java with updates and security patches, you will need to pay for an Oracle subscription. This is in addition to any Atlassian licencing costs.
What are my options?
You have three main options:
1. Stay on your the old version of Oracle Java
You can continue running on Oracle JDK 8 without a subscription, but it will leave you vulnerable to any Java security issues that are identified after January 2019.
This version will also be unsupported by future versions of Atlassian products, meaning you won't be able to upgrade your Jira, Confluence or Bitbucket for new features, security patches, etc.
2. Purchase an Oracle Java subscription
If you want to continue to get updates and security patches beyond January 2019, you'll need to purchase an Oracle Java SE subscription. Check out this Oracle post for more.
3. Upgrade your Atlassian tools to a version that supports OpenJDK
Each Atlassian Server and Data Center product now has a feature version which supports OpenJDK and will continue doing so. This is a free, open-source version of Java that can be used instead of the paid Oracle one.
By upgrading your Jira, Confluence or Bitbucket tools to the required version, you can start using OpenJDK and avoid both additional subscription costs or security vulnerabilities.
This is the recommended approach.
Example Scenario
Oracle's subscription model will charge you $25USD/processor per month.
If you're running a production and non-production Jira Server and Confluence Server, each with quad cores, and you decide to continue with Oracle LTS Java, you would incur the following costs:
- 2 environments (prod & non-prod) x 2 applications (Jira & Confluence) = 4 servers
- 4 processors (quad core servers) per month x 12 months x $25/month= $4800 USD per annum
In this example, you will need to pay an additional $4,800 per year for the Oracle Java subscription.
Note that this is in addition to your Atlassian licencing and support costs.
Based on the above example, Data Centre customers with a combined 6 nodes across Jira Data Centre and Confluence Data Centre could cost an additional $28,800 per year for 6 nodes.
*more information on Oracle costs can be found here
What should I do next?
Check your Java version (see table below) and decide which option above suits you most. Option 3 above is the most recommended course of action from Atlassian.
If you need any support throughout this process, GLiNTECH's team of Atlassian experts can guide you through an upgrade of your Atlassian tools and/or Java version. Contact us via the button below.
Jira Software
| Product | Product Version | Supported Java Version(s)* |
|---|---|---|
| Jira | 7.3.0+, 7.4.0+,7.5.0+, 7.6.0-7.6.10 (ER), 7.7.0+, 7.11.0+, 7.12.0+ |
Oracle JDK 8 |
| 7.6.11+ (ER) | Oracle JDK 8 AdoptOpenJDK 8** (~Q1 2019) |
|
| 7.13.0+ (ER) | Oracle JDK 8 AdoptOpenJDK 8** |
|
| 8.0.0+ | Oracle JDK 8 (~Q1 2019) AdoptOpenJDK 8 (~Q1 2019) |
|
| 8.1+ | Oracle JDK 8 (2019) AdoptOpenJDK 8 (2019) Oracle JDK 11 (2019) AdoptOpenJDK 11 (2019) |
Jira Service Desk
| Product | Product Version | Supported Java Version(s)* |
|---|---|---|
| Jira Service Desk | 3.3.0+, 3.4.0+, 3.5.0+, 3.6.0+, 3.7.0+, 3.8.0+, 3.9.0 - 3.9.10, 3.10.0+, 3.11.0+, 3.12.0+, 3.13.0+, 3.14.0+, 3.15.0+ |
Oracle JDK 8 |
| 3.19.11+ (ER) | Oracle JDK 8 AdoptOpenJDK 8** (following Jira 7.6.11+) |
|
| 3.16.0+ (ER) | Oracle JDK 8 AdoptOpenJDK 8*** (~Q1/Q2 2019) |
|
| 4.0.0+ | Oracle JDK 8 (~Q1 2019) AdoptOpenJDK 8 (~Q1 2019) |
|
| 4.1+ | Oracle JDK 8 (2019) AdoptOpenJDK 8 (2019) Oracle JDK 11 (2019) AdoptOpenJDK 11 (2019) |
Confluence
| Product | Product Version | Supported Java Version(s)* |
|---|---|---|
| Confluence | 6.1.0+, 6.2.0+, 6.3.0+, 6.4.0+, 6.4.0+, 6.5.0+, 6.6.0 - 6.6.11, 6.7.0+, 6.8.0+, 6.9.0+,6.10.0+, 6.11.0+, 6.12.0+ |
Oracle JDK 8 |
| 6.6.12+ (or later bugfix release) (ER) | Oracle JDK 8 AdoptOpenJDK 8 |
|
| 6.13.0+ (ER) | Oracle JDK 8 AdoptOpenJDK 8 |
|
| 7.0+ | Oracle JDK 11 (~Q2 2019) AdoptOpenJDK 11 (~Q2 2019) |
For more information, and versions for Bamboo, Crowd, etc. see the Atlassian source here.