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by rablackburn 1736 days ago
If this is a serious question, this is why:

Confluence users are enterprise companies, and getting a self-hosted server up and running is too much pain to be bothered to deal with.

This is a process problem. The steps to get one would be something like:

- try and find the “provision a server” option in the corporate service portal (there probably isn’t one)

- ask someone if they know how to provision one. Get a link to a separate system where you can make the request

- you need to associate the instance with a cost centre, or maybe you literally need a credit card number, don’t forget to attach written manager approval

- update the project’s budget to include the unexpected cost of this internal service. Hopefully there’s actually some margin to afford it.

- wait a day or two for the request to go through

- get the instance details, RDP in and try and set everything up. Realise you need to make a separate request for admin rights to install non-base software if you don’t want to use IIS and MSSQL server

- wait a day for admin rights. Don’t forget to add written manager approval to the request or else it will be denied

- realise you need to make a separate DNS request to get a friendly url for the team to access it. Also, how are you going to secure access to just your team members? Need to integrate with the corporate AD

- …about a dozen more steps

Compare all of that with:

- Go to the corporate confluence instance

- click “Create”, add your team members with edit rights.

- done

Confluence itself may not be a great experience to use, but it’s solving the problem of getting to the point of having a wiki setup in the first place.

3 comments

> getting a self-hosted server up and running is too much pain

And yet many of them self-host Confluence. And many other things. And provision servers all the time. And you have to provide a CC (or maybe PO) for Confluence in any case. And you can't just associate Confluence with a cost centre. And you have to budget it. And... literally every single one of your arguments applies just as much to Confuence.

Self-hosted Confluence Server edition is a legacy of the times when cloud SaaS was not an option. Now you cannot even buy it, because it is being replaced with DataCenter edition.
It’s not that confluence doesn’t require a server, or a technological feature at all, it’s about the business processes.

The business is guided to build a setup where setting up confluence is no-friction. Whereas a one-off generic server is much higher in comparison.

"It's not any of the things claimed in the comment you were replying to, but I'm going to argue with you anyway"
Oh, and updating the CMDB too!
And firewall rules!