Key Takeaways:

• Understand why Atlassian Data Center EOL demands migration to Forge.
• Learn how Forge simplifies app development while introducing new architectural patterns.
• Explore Forge SQL for structured, enterprise-scale data with insights into its trade-offs and limitations.
• Discover Forge Remote as a way to extend Forge apps with flexible, hybrid architectures.

With the announced end of life for Atlassian Data Center, enterprise customers are moving to Atlassian Cloud. This shift creates both a challenge and an opportunity for developers maintaining Data Center marketplace apps. As Atlassian Connect also phases out, Atlassian Forge becomes the single platform for developing secure, cloud-native applications that "run on Atlassian."

In this session, we'll explore what this migration means for app developers—from managing infrastructure-heavy Data Center apps to building lightweight, managed, and compliant solutions on Forge. We'll discuss the development pain points of the Data Center era, such as server management, deployment pipelines, and scaling complexities, and how Forge's serverless architecture and integrated platform solve many of these challenges.

We'll then take a closer look at Forge SQL, a recent and transformative addition to the Forge platform's storage capabilities. Previously, developers relied on a key-value store suited for lightweight data. With Forge SQL, developers can now define schemas, store structured data, and handle larger, relational-style datasets—all while benefiting from secure, tenant-isolated storage managed by Atlassian. Forge SQL enables true enterprise-grade app development for the Cloud, but like any evolving platform, it comes with trade-offs: long-running, queue-based operations can be tricky to implement, debugging and data inspection are limited, and referential integrity isn't natively enforced. We'll discuss strategies to navigate these challenges and conclude by exploring Forge Remote, a hybrid approach where the frontend runs within Forge's secure UI environment while the backend executes on external infrastructure—bridging the gap between Forge's managed environment and the flexibility enterprises often need.