Overview of integrations between cloud and self-managed products
You can integrate Atlassian products either by using application links or several in-product integrations.
Application links
You can now use application tunnels to forward application links to your network, without opening it for any incoming connections or allowlisting Cloud IP ranges. Once you create a tunnel, you point application links at it, and all the traffic gets forwarded to the target Server or Data Center instance. For more info, see Connect to self-managed products with application tunnels.
Application links are the most common way to integrate Atlassian products. They create a communication window between your products that can be used to exchange functionalities created specifically for application links or coming from Marketplace apps. Products linked through application links communicate with each other directly, which means there are some network requirements needed for cloud to reach your Data Center or Server instances if they live behind a firewall.
In-product integrations
In-product integrations have been created to target and exchange specific features rather than focus on broader integration. Rather than just integrating Jira with Confluence (which application links do), one of the in-product integrations lets you use Confluence spaces as knowledge bases for customer portals in Jira Service Management – a solution for a very specific and narrow need, and nothing more. We’re calling them in-product integrations here for the need of grouping them together, but every product will refer to their integration in a different way, most likely referring to the goal it achieves (Use Confluence Cloud as knowledge base).
Which one should you choose?
Ideally, you’d use both as they complement each other. While application links allow your products to exchange their primary and most known functionalities, in-product integrations either make them better or add extra features. You need to decide whether you can allowlist additional IPs to benefit from both. If not, you can still keep your network relatively closed and use only in-product integrations if they provide the features you’re interested in.
Summary of integrations between cloud and self-managed products
When describing the features available in these integrations, we’ve marked them as coming from application links or in-product integrations, so you can decide which integration you need. For more info, open the integration you’re interested in: