Atlassian offers two main channels of delivery for its products. On the one hand, software applications can be downloaded an configured locally behind the firewall ('Data Center'). On the other, Atlassian offers products as a service on a hosted environment ('Cloud'). Both environments offer their own benefits and downsides as the platform choice for the pilot instance:

Cloud

Setting up an account is as easy as any other Software As A Service (SAAS) account and integration in between the hosted applications comes out of the box. This allows for a very quick pilot setup with no worries about software and hardware requirements. Also, you are not dependent on your IT department to set up a virtual or physical machine. That way, the majority of the work can be invested into populating customizing the instance.

On the other hand, it comes with a number of restrictions that might be critical to your pilot depending on what the trial goals are. For example, the instances are English only and layout themes aren't supported which disables you to implement your corporate visual identity. Also, your Cloud site has limited extensibility to other Atlassian products and a shorter list of supported apps.

More information:

• Compare Atlassian cloud vs Data Center
• Also, see the Purchasing FAQ
• Sign up for a free trial

Data Center

The Data Center version on the other hand offers full flexibility, extreme customizability, and extensibility without limits. Additionally, the placement behind the corporate firewall allows you to better integrate with other corporate systems such as your LDAP while at the same, being inside the protected network of your organization.

More information:

• Download a trial version