Atlassian Cloud Changes for Fortune 100 Companies: October 2024 Update

As a technology writer focusing on the Atlassian ecosystem, I'm excited to share some crucial updates that Fortune 100 companies should be aware of in their use of Atlassian products. These changes are scheduled for October 2024 and will impact Jira, Confluence, Jira Service Management, among others.

Highlights for Regulated Businesses

Atlassian Guard and Security Enhancements

Atlassian has renamed Atlassian Access to Atlassian Guard in their administration panel on June 12, 2024. This change reflects their continued commitment to enhancing security within their products. [Source: Atlassian](https://confluence.atlassian.com/cloud/blog/2024/10/atlassian-cloud-changes-oct-14-to-oct-21-2024 )

Pricing and Packaging Update for Jira Service Management (JSM)

To support customers during this transition, sites with more than 40k Assets objects or over 800 Virtual Service Agent assisted conversations by September 9, 2024 will receive a 12-month grace period upon completion of their next billing cycle after October 16, 2024. This adjustment is part of the updated pricing and packaging for Jira Service Management in the cloud. [Source: Atlassian](https://www.atlassian.com/blog/announcements/jsm-cloud-pricing-packaging-update-blog )

Important Changes Across Atlassian Cloud Products

Starting October 16, 2024, Atlassian will implement significant changes to its Cloud pricing and packaging across various products. These changes reflect Atlassian's continued investment in enhancing product capabilities, improving security, and optimizing user experience. [Source: Valiantys](https://valiantys.com/en/blog/atlassian-administration/atlassian-cloud-pricing-update-october-2024/ )

Security Bulletin - October 15 2024

In addition to the pricing and packaging updates, Atlassian has also addressed six high-severity vulnerabilities that have been fixed in new versions of their products. These vulnerabilities were discovered through their Bug Bounty program, pen-testing processes, and third-party library scans. [Source: Atlassian Documentation](https://confluence.atlassian.com/security/security-bulletin-october-15-2024-1442910972.html )

Stay tuned for more insights on the Atlassian ecosystem! If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to reach out.

Atlassian Automation Unleashed

Let’s dive into an exciting new update in Atlassian Automation, which is growing more powerful by the day! With each new feature, Atlassian Automation inches closer to enabling users to build truly advanced workflows that can span entire organizations.

Atlassian introduced exciting new features such as:

• End User Smart Buttons
• New AI Summary & Action Items Smart Values and Templates
• Enterprise Edition Component Security Controls

These changes open even more possibilities to automate repetitive tasks, ensuring teams are focused on strategic work instead of manual updates.

As a big advocate for taking automation to the next level, I believe all successful automation workflows follow one of five essential patterns. When you know these patterns, you’re not just automating; you’re creating highly scalable solutions. Here’s how I break it down:

The Five Patterns of Atlassian Automation

1. Orchestrate – Think of this as your automation manager. Orchestrate is perfect for setting up a schedule that “conducts” other workflows and keeps every component in sync. Need a sequence of events to trigger in the right order? This is your go-to pattern.

2. State Pattern – This one’s all about memory! With the State pattern, you can store information in Jira, enabling automations to “remember” data between rules. This is critical for workflows that require multiple steps over time.

3. Extend – Here’s where things get powerful. By leveraging Jira’s REST API, the Extend pattern allows you to go beyond Atlassian Automation’s built-in actions. It’s ideal for adding those unique touches that align your automation with custom needs and external data sources.

4. Reuse – Ever wanted a toolbox of automations that your team can use repeatedly without reinventing the wheel? The Reuse pattern helps you create modular, reusable programs that handle common tasks. It’s perfect for managing secrets, handling recurring tasks, and other standardized workflows.

5. Inform – Sometimes, the best automations are the ones that keep everyone in the loop. The Inform pattern does just that, automatically updating clients, stakeholders, or teams so that they stay informed without manual intervention.

Combining Patterns for Advanced Solutions

When you combine these patterns, the potential is limitless. Here’s an example: say you want to scan every project across every site in your organization to find projects that haven’t been updated in three months. With just three automation rules, we can create a powerful program:

• Rule 1 - Orchestrate & State Patterns – Set up a scheduled rule that kicks off the scanning process, managing the flow and ensuring that each site is scanned systematically.
• Rule 2 - State and Extend Patterns – This rule dives deep, using stored data to track the scan’s progress (State pattern) and reaches out to other systems via the REST API (Extend pattern) to get the latest data on project activity.
• Rule 3: Reuse Pattern – Lastly, we use a reusable rule to manage API token secrets securely with HashiCorp. This rule is called upon whenever the other rules need access to a secured API, keeping your tokens safe and your automation hassle-free.

Together, these patterns allow you to automate a large-scale, secure scan of your entire Atlassian setup with just a few well-designed rules. This combination can save your team hundreds of hours of manual work, ensuring a consistent and reliable process every time.

Take Your Skills to the Next Level

If this sounds exciting, and you’re ready to dive deeper, I’ve put together a Udemy course just for Atlassian Automation . The course covers these patterns in detail, offers real-world examples, and even includes materials for you to practice along. You’ll not only learn the concepts but also how to apply them to build effective automations. You can join the course today, get hands-on experience, and start creating impactful automation solutions right away.

So, are you ready to become a Jira automation pro? Sign up on Udemy and let’s take your automation skills to the next level!