You’ve probably experienced this before (or maybe you are, right now): your team is growing faster than you ever thought possible. Projects are piling up, new people are joining, and collaboration is happening at lightning speed. But with that growth, things start to get a little… messy.
Files are getting lost, systems are slowing down, and downtime is costing your team precious hours. It feels like chaos is just around the corner.
That’s where Confluence Data Center can come to the rescue.
In this guide, we’ll break down what makes Confluence Data Center so powerful, how it compares to Confluence Cloud, and why it might just be the solution you’re looking for.
Ready? Let’s jump in!
What is Confluence Data Center?
Confluence Data Center and Confluence Cloud are just different ways of hosting the Confluence app.
Confluence Data Center is self-hosted, which means that large companies can have more control over thei configuration and customization.
It’s a version of Confluence made for big teams dealing with fast growth, system slowdowns, or concerns about keeping everything running smoothly during emergencies.
What sets Confluence Data Center apart from Confluence Cloud?
Confluence Data Center is made for big, growing teams that need things to run smoothly. It gives you the flexibility, power, and control to keep everyone working together without a hitch, no matter how large your team gets.
Confluence Cloud is hosted by Atlassian, and Confluence Data Center is self-hosted. All of the differences stem from the fact that with Confluence Data Center being self-hosted, you have much more control over how it’s configured. Whereas with Confluence Cloud, you are relying on Atlassian’s server hosting for all of your needs.
Confluence Data Center
Best for larger organizations that want total control over their setup.
- Data control: You’re in charge of where your data lives and how it’s stored, so you can meet those strict regulations.
- Scalability: Easily add more servers as your team grows and traffic increases.
- Customization: Perfect if you need advanced customization or want to integrate Confluence with your internal systems and workflows.
Confluence Cloud
Ideal for teams who want Confluence’s collaboration power without having to manage all the tech stuff.
- Lower maintenance: Atlassian takes care of hosting, updates, and security, so you don’t have to.
- Cost-effective: The subscription pricing often works out better for small and mid-sized teams.
- Easy integration: Connects seamlessly with other Atlassian tools like Jira and Trello for a smoother workflow.
How Confluence Data Center handles growth without missing a beat
Whether you have hundreds or thousands of users, Confluence Data Center scales up smoothly. If things start to slow down in the app, you simply can add servers (or “nodes”) to keep everything running fast and prevent overload.
- Add as you grow: Need more power? Just install more nodes to keep up with your growing user base.
- Clustered setup: For bigger teams, spreading Confluence across multiple servers makes sure everything stays balanced and keeps performance steady, no matter how much traffic comes.
With Confluence Data Center, you stay online no matter what
Confluence Data Center is designed to keep you up and running, even when things go wrong. If one part of your Confluence Data Center crashes, others step in to keep everything online.
- Always on: With multiple servers (or “nodes”) working together, if one fails, the others take over to make sure your team isn’t affected.
- Disaster recovery: It also has built-in safety nets like database syncing to protect your data and cut down on downtime when things don’t go as planned.
Data protection you can count on
Confluence Data Center puts you in the driver’s seat when it comes to your data. You decide exactly where and how it’s stored, which is a must for industries with strict rules around data security.
- Full control over your data: Host it on your own servers or in private clouds like AWS or Azure to stay on top of security regulations.
- Custom security settings: Set up access permissions and encryption just the way you need it to fit your organization’s unique security needs.
Fits into your workflow
Confluence Data Center lets you shape the platform to fit your team perfectly. Whether it’s tweaking the look or adding extra features, you’re in control.
- Make it look your way: Use custom CSS to match Confluence with your brand and processes.
- Add what you need: Browse hundreds of apps in the Atlassian Marketplace to boost functionality, from workflow tools to document collaboration.
Choose how to roll out Confluence Data Center
Single-server setup (for smaller teams)
If you’re a smaller team or don’t need high availability, you can set up Confluence Data Center on just one server. It’s straightforward and it still gives you all the advanced features without the need for complex infrastructure.
- Download the software: Grab Confluence Data Center from Atlassian’s website.
- Install on your server: Follow the instructions for Windows or Linux to get it up and running.
- Enter your license: Activate everything by entering your Data Center license.
- Configure your database: Connect to an external database for better performance.
Clustered setup (for growing teams)
If your team is growing fast, you can deploy Confluence Data Center across multiple servers (or nodes) to keep things running smoothly.
- Always online: If one server crashes, the others keep everything going without downtime.
- Room to grow: Add more servers as your team expands, ensuring performance stays solid no matter how big your team gets.
How to set it up:
- Install on the first node: Set up Confluence on one server and configure your cluster settings.
- Add more nodes: Once the first server is running, copy the setup to other servers to balance the load.
- Test the cluster: Make sure all the servers are connected and working together.
Cloud setup (no servers, no hassle)
Don’t want to deal with physical servers? No problem! Confluence Data Center can run on cloud platforms like AWS or Azure, giving you all the benefits of Data Center with none of the hardware worries.
- AWS and Azure: Use ready-made templates to get Confluence up and running quickly in the cloud.
- Kubernetes: If you’re using containers, Confluence works with Kubernetes too, giving you easy scalability as you grow.
With these flexible options, Confluence Data Center adapts to your team, whether you’re just starting out or scaling fast.
How to keep Confluence Data Center running smoothly
Once you’ve got Confluence Data Center up and running, it’s important to keep it running at its best so your team can collaborate without any hiccups. Here’s how to stay on top of things:
Get the best out of your setup
As your team and content grow, regular performance tweaks help keep everything fast and efficient.
- Make sure your servers are up to the job: See to it that your servers meet the recommended specs to handle all the action.
- Tweak JVM settings: Adjust Java Virtual Machine settings to get the most of your resources.
Test and monitor regularly
Regular checkups on your system help catch performance issues before they mess with your team’s workflow.
- Load testing: Simulate heavy traffic to see if your system can handle busy times.
- System monitoring: Use Atlassian’s built-in tools to keep an eye on things like CPU usage and memory.
Stick to good maintenance habits
Keeping Confluence healthy means sticking to a regular maintenance routine.
- Stay updated: Always install the latest software updates from Atlassian to get new features and security fixes.
- Rebuild your index: Regularly rebuild your search index to make sure search results are fast and accurate.
With a bit of regular tuning, testing, and maintenance, you’ll keep Confluence running like a well-oiled machine, no matter how big your team gets.
Confluence Data Center vs. Confluence Cloud
Choosing between Confluence Data Center and Confluence Cloud comes down to your team’s specific needs, particularly around data control, scalability, and ease of use.
Confluence Data Center
Best for larger organizations that want total control over their setup.
- Data control: You’re in charge of where your data lives and how it’s stored, so you can meet those strict regulations.
- Scalability: Easily add more servers as your team grows and traffic increases.
- Customization: Perfect if you need advanced customization or want to integrate Confluence with your internal systems and workflows.
Confluence Cloud
Ideal for teams who want Confluence’s collaboration power without having to manage all the tech stuff.
- Lower maintenance: Atlassian takes care of hosting, updates, and security, so you don’t have to.
- Cost-effective: The subscription pricing often works out better for small and mid-sized teams.
- Easy integration: Connects seamlessly with other Atlassian tools like Jira and Trello for a smoother workflow.
Is Confluence Data Center right for your team?
Confluence Data Center is built for businesses that need power, control, and room to grow. It’s great for big teams that rely on smooth collaboration and can’t afford downtime. Take a look at what your team needs – whether it’s managing data, scaling up, or customizing workflows – and you’ll be able to pick the right Confluence version to keep your team moving forward.
While Confluence Data Center is a powerful tool for managing collaboration and scaling across big teams, sometimes you need a little extra help to keep everything running smoothly. That’s where eesel AI can really help.
As your confluence data center grows, the information inside of it becomes harder to find. eesel AI is an AI-powered assistant that can be trained on any information inside of your Confluence (and other platforms), then it can answer any questions based on that information.
Think of eesel AI as your team’s sidekick, saving them the hassle and time spent searching through your Confluence. Whether it’s sorting tickets, managing workflows, or speeding up response times, eesel AI boosts productivity without complicating things.
If you’re already using Confluence Data Center and want to make support smoother and more efficient, eesel AI could be your perfect match. Sign up for a 7-day trial today!
