Responding to the industry trend of vendors transitioning services and platforms to the cloud, Cornell is preparing to migrate Confluence to a cloud-based environment in 2027. To support that transition, Information Technology (IT) at Cornell is surveying Confluence spaces, memberships, and usage patterns to help ensure the platform remains useful, secure, and sustainable for the long term.

Reviewing Decades of Data in Confluence Spaces

Confluence has long provided faculty, staff, students, research groups, and project teams with spaces for collaboration and documentation. That flexibility helped the platform grow across the university, but it also created a challenge familiar to many organizations: determining which content remains active, who is responsible for maintaining it, and what information continues to serve a current Cornell purpose.

Through a simple Microsoft Forms survey, IT at Cornell can identify active spaces, confirm ownership, and better understand how the university community uses Confluence today. The effort also supports planning for a cloud-based environment, where storage, licensing, and administration models differ from those of on-premises systems.

Complete a Microsoft Form for existing Confluence spaces you would like moved to the cloud:

• Anonymous Confluence Space(s) Survey (do not require a login for access)
• Cornell Access Confluence Space(s) Survey

Managing Data as Cornell's Digital Footprint Grows

The review reflects a broader shift occurring across the technology industry. As software providers increasingly move to cloud-hosted services, organizations are reevaluating long-standing assumptions about retaining every account, document, and collaboration space indefinitely.

Many of Cornell's technology vendors are introducing new storage and licensing models that encourage more active management of content and data. One vendor recently notified Cornell that retaining large volumes of inactive content will result in significant new annual storage costs.

Rather than treating storage as unlimited, institutions are increasingly adopting lifecycle approaches that focus on maintaining active content, archiving information with continuing value, and retiring materials that are no longer needed.

For Confluence, that means understanding which spaces continue to support teaching, research, administrative operations, and project work while identifying content that may no longer require active maintenance.

Improving Trust in Institutional Knowledge

Based on survey responses, inactive Confluence spaces will remain in the current environment through its planned retirement in 2028. Only spaces confirmed as active and necessary will migrate to Confluence Cloud.

This approach helps improve the quality and discoverability of information stored in Confluence. Outdated documentation, abandoned project spaces, and content without a clear owner can make it difficult for users to know which information is current and trustworthy.

A smaller collection of actively maintained information often provides a better experience than a larger collection of content with unclear ownership or status.

By identifying current owners and validating ongoing business needs, Cornell IT hopes to strengthen confidence in the information community members find and use every day.

Strengthening Security for Data Transitioning to the Cloud 

The effort also includes a review of spaces that currently allow anonymous access. Project leaders are contacting administrators of those spaces to determine whether anonymous access is still required and whether the content continues to serve an active purpose.

As planning continues for a future cloud environment, IT at Cornell expects authenticated access to become the standard model for Confluence content. Users accessing university information would be expected to sign in using a Cornell-approved identity, such as a NetID, CWID, or sponsored Cornell credentials, rather than viewing content anonymously.

This approach aligns with broader university efforts to strengthen security controls, better protect institutional information, and ensure appropriate access to content.

Building a Sustainable Path Forward for Collaborative Spaces

The current outreach effort focuses on a limited set of spaces, allowing the team to evaluate response patterns and refine future governance processes. Longer term, the review may help establish ongoing practices for regularly confirming ownership, validating business need, and retiring unused spaces before they become difficult to manage.

While the upcoming migration provides the opportunity to review content, the larger goal is ensuring that Confluence remains a trusted, secure, and sustainable knowledge resource for the Cornell community for years to come.