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In this article, you will learn how companies can significantly reduce their Jira Data Center costs by using floating licenses. Using a case study for a 15,000-user instance, we will show you step-by-step how to introduce efficient license management, determine the optimal number of paid licenses and save up to USD 373,000 annually.
Price development and its impact on Jira Data Center users
Review of the last 5 years
In recent years, prices for Jira Data Center have risen significantly. In 2019, the price for the 15,000-user tier was USD 290,400, which equated to a price of around USD 19.36 per user. By 2021, this had risen to USD 525,000, around USD 35 per user. From February 2024, the price was further increased to USD 604,000, which corresponds to a user price of USD 40.27. These price jumps reflect Atlassian’s investment in the platform, but also represent a significant financial burden for companies.
The impact of the price increase on your company
The continuous price increases for Jira Data Center represent a massive risk for companies that use Jira as a central platform for project management and collaboration. These costs are usually incurred as OPEX (operating expenses) and therefore cannot be capitalized, which makes budget planning difficult. Companies not only have to reckon with rising license costs, but also with increased costs for third-party Jira apps, which are often dependent on the number of users.
Strategies for COST OPTIMIZATION
To mitigate these effects, companies can apply the following strategies:
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License optimization: Regular checking and deactivation of unused or inactive user accounts to reduce license costs.
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Targeted user groups: Prioritize users with high added value (e.g. heavy users and admins) and optimize licensing for occasional users.
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Cost allocation: Create a cost center allocation to allocate licenses and third-party costs more transparently to departments or teams.
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Automation and integration: Use automation tools to reduce repetitive tasks and make third-party integrations more efficient.
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Evaluate alternatives: Check whether more cost-effective hosting options or a cloud-based solution are more economical in the long term.
By combining these approaches, companies can effectively reduce the financial burden of price increases and sustainably optimize the use of Jira Data Center.
Jira DC users are divided into five groups
The user structure of Jira Data Center is versatile and directly influences the license costs:
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Admins: Manage and configure the instance, but represent a small part of the user base.
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Heavy users: Intensive users who work with Jira on a daily basis and deliver high added value.
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VIP users from management: Occasionally use Jira for reports and decision-making processes.
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Standard Users: Average employees who use Jira regularly but only use basic functions.
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Occasional users and “corpse” accounts: Accounts that are rarely or never used, but incur full license costs.
Groups 3 (VIP users) and 4 (standard users) in particular tie up significant license costs without always exploiting the full benefits of the platform. A high number of inactive or underutilized accounts drives up the license costs and increases the associated third-party provider costs.
How to make the switch to floating licenses - A case study for 15,000 users
Prerequisite
You need the VIP.LEAN Floating Licenses app. The way this app works is described in detail in this article: https://viplean.com/viplean-license-manager/.
Informationen zu App finden Sie Hier:
You will also need a license for your migration phase. We offer you a free license for 3 months until you have reached your final optimal setup.
Set up initial setup
In an instance with 15,000 users, all potential users who are to receive a license dynamically are first identified. These are all users who are not admins, technical users (for REST API) or heavy/VIP users. In our example, we assume that this number corresponds to 14,500. You create two groups:- jira-software-users: Group with active access to Jira Software.
- jira-virtual-users: Group without license.
Determine the optimal number of paid licenses
Now start reducing the number of real licenses used from 14,500 in increments of 500 week by week. As long as the users are satisfied with their Jira experience, you can continue to reduce. In the end and with normal use, you should end up with around 3,500 licenses, with which you can serve 14,500 end users. If user logins are rejected, you can:- Reduce the inactivity threshold above which a license can be postponed.
- Or increase the number of licenses used.
Set up the final setup
For example, if you opt for a total of 4,000 paid licenses to serve 15,000 users, you buy the license for our app for 15,000 floating licenses. We recommend a further observation phase of 3 months. After that, you can reduce your Jira DC from 15,000 paid users to 4,000. This results in a saving of: USD 604,000 – USD 231,000 = USD 373,000Start now !
