Don’t trust the cloud for your team chats? You can now run HipChat on your own servers

Sometimes, customers want to use your products in the privacy of their own networks, not on the cloud.

That’s a lesson Atlassian has learned with HipChat, its team communications tool. The company is announcing a new version of HipChat today, called HipChat Server, that enterprise customers can run on their own networks for added control.

While plenty of startups and companies prefer a cloud-based communications tool, it’s not the case for all.

“There’s a vast number of companies that have to have some component on their own servers,” Atlassian general manager Bernardo de Albergaria told VentureBeat.

Until now, their only options have been tools like Microsoft Lync and other unsexy tools that “don’t have any of the modern capabilities,” de Albergaria said. More than 4,000 customers participated in the beta test for HipChat Server, including big and small companies, government and defense contractors, health care companies, and even a hotel franchise.

“For the first time, anyone that is looking for a modern communications tool … will be able to install it on their own servers,” he said.

What’s interesting is that, for all the buzz cloud-based enterprise tools have been receiving (Slack, etc.), there’s still a significant portion of companies that prefer or need to control their software at that level because of regulatory requirements or other reasons. Atlassian’s flagship software, now available both ways, began as a tool customers ran on their own servers.

“More than half of our customers [still] choose to run the products behind the firewall,” de Albergaria said, underscoring the importance of HipChat Server for his customers.

HipChat Server comes with the same features and capabilities as the cloud-based version, and on a monthly subscription-basis. Atlassian acquired HipChat in 2012.