The payment service provider VR Payment, based in Frankfurt, Germany, embarked on a strategic journey into the Atlassian Cloud, partnering with Seibert Solutions.
In June 2021, VR Payment decided to move its server instances to the Cloud after six months of comprehensive evaluation. The actual migration project began with extensive planning and analysis, culminating in a successful migration weekend in February 2022.
In this customer story, we spoke with System Administrators Matthias Frank and Andreas Schmidt, who were closely involved in VR Payment’s Cloud Migration project. Their insights offer a detailed look into the experience.
About VR Payment
VR Payment is a specialist in contactless payment solutions. As a leader in payment offerings in Germany, VR Payment develops innovative solutions for customers in online and offline businesses. The company employs over 350 people across its main office in Frankfurt and its location in Ettlingen, outside of Stuttgart.
Within half a year, and with the support of Seibert Solutions, VR Payment successfully migrated approximately 500 users in Jira and Confluence to the Atlassian Cloud.
The Challenge: Farewell to Server
The catalyst for VR Payment’s move to the Cloud emerged at the end of 2020 when Atlassian announced the cancellation of support for its server products by February 2024.
Atlassian Server End-of-Life
“At the end of 2020, Atlassian informed everyone that their server solution would end. For us, this was the first step in deciding what to do with the license,” Matthias Frank explained. “We finally agreed, a possible solution was to buy a new server license. That was the beginning of 2021 - so we wanted a year’s time span to make a decision about what we would prefer to do in the future: if we would switch to the cloud or if we would use a data center.”
VR Payment initiated an internal discussion within its architecture board, simultaneously contacting Atlassian to explore concrete options, license models, and data protection compliance.
Data Protection and Regulatory Compliance
As a company operating with a banking license, VR Payment is subject to strict regulations, including those from BaFin (the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority). This meant data protection was a paramount concern for any new software system.
“We are subject to regulations as a bank and must meet requirements e.g. the BaFin,” Andreas Schmidt stated. “In the Cloud, we had to - in contrast to a data center or to the server - actually look that the data residency in Europe was secure. This was possible by choosing the Premium products from Atlassian Cloud.”
The Solution: Embracing the Atlassian Cloud
After thorough evaluation, VR Payment made the strategic decision to adopt the Atlassian Cloud.
Strategic Decision-Making
A decisive advantage for choosing the Cloud was its scalability and cost-effectiveness. “Currently, we have around 500 users. This was simply a question of cost, if a data center of this dimension even pays off at the moment,” Matthias noted. “And we came to discover that the Cloud is cheaper and also more flexible, because we had to assume that our user count will drastically change as we increasingly become project-driven. In addition, we have relatively large growth with many new users coming in. Through these changes, we anticipate a decline in the user count where we can react better in the Cloud than in Data Center.”
Andreas added, “Another important point that we can’t forget is that we received a secure plan in the Cloud. In terms of a data center, we have not been able to get any concrete statement from Atlassian as to how long this option will still be available. And in this respect, it was the safer option to go to the Cloud.”
As of October 2025, Atlassian has announced its plan to end support for Data Center products.
Partnering with Seibert
Once the internal decision was made, VR Payment contacted Seibert, a Platinum Atlassian Solution Partner. The initial discussions focused on support for the migration and clarifying various license options. VR Payment opted for an annual license to accommodate fluctuating user numbers.
The Migration Process
The actual migration project commenced with meticulous planning and execution.
Planning & Analysis
“After the first conversation with Seibert, we sat down and planned how much time we would need for this project,” Andreas explained. “That is to say, we first looked at the instances. How many users do we have on it, how many projects, how many Confluence areas? How big are the projects, how are they structured? We then could estimate that we would need about three months.” This planning phase started in November 2021.
Testing
Detailed analyses were conducted, including multiple test migrations. “What helped us was that we first carried out several test migrations step by step,” Matthias confirmed. “To do this, we applied for a Cloud trial. I quickly learned that it ran relatively smoothly.”
Learn more about Seibert’s Cloud Migration Process.
Communication & Training
A comprehensive communication strategy was crucial to ensure a smooth transition for all employees.
- Regular email updates informed users about the migration and what to expect.
- Users received specific instructions on items like Jira filters that required manual attention.
- Training sessions, prepared by VR Payment’s HR department and Seibert, were provided.
- Extensive documentation was created and maintained on the Seibert extranet.
App Strategy
A key success factor was VR Payment’s approach to apps. “This was partly due to the fact that we still had relatively few apps installed in the system and no new app licenses,” Matthias stated. “The reason for this was, we said, we would wait for the decision on which new solution - and only then did we want to start buying apps for this new solution.” This minimal app strategy ensured a cleaner migration.
Execution and Post-Migration
The migration weekend was held from February 18th to the 20th, 2022. A strict project plan guided the process, detailing manual tasks and automations.
After the actual migration, the old server instance remained operational for 14 days to allow access to data and address any unforeseen issues.
Results and Benefits
The migration to Atlassian Cloud yielded significant positive outcomes for VR Payment.
Successful Migration
“Well, there were hardly any problems,” Andreas reported. “There were individual users who actually overlooked or did not notice these instructions - or who did not adopt the filters and dashboards. But these were isolated cases - we were able to copy these things over or create new ones within a few minutes, because we still had the old instance… But on the whole, we migrated 100% of our data as we had imagined. And the plan worked out perfectly.”
Operational Improvements
- Simplified User Management: “Another strength I have noticed is the user management. This is now in the Cloud, central between Jira and Confluence, which has made user handling much easier compared to the server solution.” - Andreas Schmidt
- Automated User Services: “In the course of the user management change, we decided internally that we no longer create users separately. The simplest way is to say that every user who is created automatically gets access to Jira and Confluence first - which was handled separately before we changed to the Cloud. This means that we have once again simplified our user services.” - Matthias Frank
Enhanced Collaboration and Flexibility
- External Collaboration: “What has also become easier is collaborative work - for example, when external people from projects, such as employees from other companies who also use Confluence and Jira join. They are also only authorized - but no longer need their own account, but can continue to work there as normal with their service email address.” - Andreas Schmidt
- Scalability: The Cloud offers greater flexibility to adapt to VR Payment’s evolving user count and project-driven growth.
- Gradual App Adoption: Employees are slowly building their app landscape post-migration, allowing them to organically discover new functionalities like the calendar function or Advanced Roadmaps.
Future Outlook and Areas for Improvement
While the Atlassian Cloud has brought many advantages, Matthias and Andreas also shared insights into potential areas for improvement.
Strengths of Atlassian Cloud
Beyond the operational benefits, VR Payment employees quickly adapted to the new system. Andreas highlighted that having few apps initially allowed users to directly experience and grow into new Cloud functionalities.
Areas for Improvement
“From an administrative point of view, one very clear weakness would be that at the moment you don’t really know when updates are being rolled out,” Andreas pointed out. “Both for the Cloud itself and for the apps, it is very difficult to see which version it is or what has changed. This kind of thing needs a bit of advance notice on our side, so that we have the opportunity to intervene sufficiently beforehand and prepare something in our process. Unfortunately, you just don’t see these things at the moment.”
View Atlassian’s Cloud Roadmap and subscribe to get updates directly from Atlassian on upcoming changes and improvements.
Recommendation and Partnership
Would You Recommend Atlassian Cloud Products?
Matthias Frank offered a clear recommendation for Atlassian Cloud, with a nuanced perspective:
“From our point of view, we would definitely recommend them. However, I think it also depends on the size of the company and their intention in using the Cloud products. You also have to look at how intensively you have used different server apps and whether they are already available in the Cloud and if the same functionalities are guaranteed there.
But from our point of view, we give the Atlassian Cloud a clear ‘yes’. We have had good experiences with it and I think companies of a similar size should definitely use it and will be in a secure position for the future because of it”
Cooperation with Seibert
VR Payment expressed strong satisfaction with their long-standing partnership with Seibert.
Andreas Schmidt elaborated on the positive experience: “The fact that the cooperation with Seibert works very well was made clear years ago. We got to know Seibert through Confluence and Jira trainings as administrators.
After that, we expanded our cooperation by moving our server landscape to Seibert and Seibert was there to advise us as an operating partner.
And all we can really say is: No matter which project - it has so far always worked smoothly and in this respect it only made sense from our point of view to further intensify our cooperation, because they simply are a reliable partner for us.”