• Article
  • Aug.2.2018

Stride, Hipchat and Slack: What are my options?

  • Aug.2.2018
  • Reading time mins

Recently, Atlassian announced they are entering into a strategic partnership with Slack. This means that Atlassian will discontinue Hipchat and Stride and provide a migration path for clients to start using Slack.

For many Hipchat and Stride customers, this is an exciting development – Slack is an awesome product and they are clearly one of the major leaders in the chat world. For others, this strategy change comes with a lot of questions:  Should my company switch to Slack? What will the migration entail? How long do I have until I need to be off Stride or Hipchat? What if I want an on-premise solution and don’t want to move to Slack?

These initial questions can seem overwhelming, but don’t panic. As an Atlassian Platinum Solution Partner, Valiantys’ first role is to be our clients’ advocate. We’re in your corner to help you find the right solution for your specific needs – whatever that ultimately might look like for your business. We’re here to support you and make this transition as smooth as possible.

We’ve been in direct contact with Atlassian and have also teased out the critical information from Atlassian’s FAQ. Here are some of the highlights of what you should know:

I’m using Stride or Hipchat Cloud. What should I know? 

Both Stride and Hipchat Cloud will be supported until February 15, 2019. Thirty days later, all customer data will be deleted from Atlassian’s systems – so you’ll need to migrate before this time.

Atlassian is making it easy to migrate to Slack. You can find more information on how to do this on their migration hub. Additionally, Slack and Atlassian are running a special promotion for all current Hipchat and Stride customers until Sept. 30, 2019 – they should have sent an email to your group admin with a 75% off code for the annual price of Slack for the next 12 months. Check out this page here for Slack’s pricing scheme.

In our opinion Slack is a good alternative if you are already on the Cloud, as it is clear Slack will invest in further integration with the Atlassian Stack. To learn more about Slack’s features, integrations and migration, check out their page here.

I’m using Hipchat Server or Hipchat Data Center. What should I know? 

These Hipchat Server and Data Center products’ end-of-life dates are as follows:

  • Hipchat Server (v2.1): December 8, 2018
  • Hipchat Server(v2.2): May 30, 2019
  • Hipchat Server (v2.4): June, 30 2020
  • Hipchat Data Center (v3.0): June 22, 2019
  • Hipchat Data Center (v3.1): September 26, 2019

Hipchat Server customers will have support through the end of their license period. However, if your renewal is coming up shortly and you need a few more months to figure things out, get in touch with us and we can help you extend your license until the end-of-life date.

The migration hub likewise has more information on how to move your data to Slack. A code should have been sent to your technical contact for 75% off of Slack until Sept. 30, 2019. Slack Enterprise Grid is the available option for large enterprise teams, and more information can be found here.

If you have other Atlassian products on Server, you’ll need to purchase the Slack Connector apps for JiraConfluence and Bitbucket. On behalf of our clients, Valiantys is encouraging Atlassian to make these feature out-of-the-box and we hope to see this happen in the near future.

Within this strategic partnership, there is currently no on-premise solution with Slack nor currently a plan to open source Hipchat Data Center. If you want to migrate to an on-premise platform, Atlassian will not build a migration platform for these purposes. Other alternatives do exist, such as Mattermost and Rocket.Chat. Whatever you decide, our team of Atlassian consultants are here to help.

Who can I talk to at Slack?

Slack has an internal sales team. Our customers can get in touch with us, and through our Atlassian Channel Manager we’ll help connect you with the right person on the Slack team.

I literally just bought a license for Hipchat or Stride. What do I do? 

Take action sooner rather than later. If you’ve purchased a new annual license within 90 days of July 26, 2018, a refund can be issued for this request if it is received within 30 days after July 26, 2018.

How will this affect the Atlassian Stack? 

Hipchat Data Center is now removed from Stack. You can see the updated pricing here for new customers.  If your Stack license expires prior to July 26, 2019  and you need to continue using Hipchat Data Center, we can help to  generate a standalone Hipchat Data Center license key to cover you until July 26, 2019.

Let’s talk about your chat solution

We know you are busy working on making your business thrive. At Valiantys, we succeed when you don’t have to worry about the technology, rather we take care of that element for you. We look forward to the possibilities Slack can provide in this domain, along with expecting more investment from Atlassian on their core products such as Jira, Confluence, Jira Service Desk and Bitbucket. However, we’re committed to making sure all of our customers, each with their unique requirements, have a chat solution that works for them. We’re here to talk about your options and help you migrate your chat data, making this transition as seamless as possible so you can continue to focus on building your business.

Contact us

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