TL;DR
Viewtracker – Analytics for Confluence has transitioned from Atlassian Connect to Forge Remote, a hybrid platform that combines Atlassian’s security and compliance guarantees with our own AWS backend. This means no disruption to your data or performance. The main visible change is an updated Content Report display on Confluence pages. Viewtracker will not carry the “Runs on Atlassian” badge due to data egress concerns, but it will still gain meaningful security and infrastructure improvements.
What is Forge Remote?
Atlassian’s Forge Remote is a hybrid app platform that lets developers build on Atlassian’s secure, modern Forge infrastructure while still connecting to external backend services. Think of it as a bridge: your app lives on Forge, benefiting from zero-trust security, built-in authentication, and serverless scalability, while still being able to securely call out to external systems, such as a custom AWS environment.
This is a meaningful evolution from the older Connect framework, which required third-party apps to manage a much larger share of their own hosting and security.
Why does this matter? Forge Remote apps operate within Atlassian’s secure infrastructure perimeter. Authentication is handled natively, and all communication between the Forge layer and external backends is encrypted and access-controlled, reducing attack surface compared to traditional Connect integrations.
Why Viewtracker is using Forge Remote
Atlassian’s built-in Forge Storage is a solid solution for many apps — but for Viewtracker, it doesn’t yet meet the performance and data requirements our customers depend on. Viewtracker processes large volumes of page-view data, and our AWS infrastructure is purpose-built to handle that scale with the speed and reliability our users expect.
Forge Remote lets us keep our proven AWS data hosting while adopting Forge’s modern security model. It’s the best of both worlds: Atlassian’s platform guarantees on the front end, and our own optimized infrastructure on the back end.
Note on the “Runs on Atlassian” label: Because Viewtracker has data egress to our AWS backend, it will not receive the official “Runs on Atlassian” badge. This label is reserved for apps that store all data entirely within Atlassian’s infrastructure. We’re committed to full transparency about this distinction.
Benefits of this migration
- Zero-trust security. Runs within Atlassian’s secure infrastructure with built-in authentication
- Data residency compliance. Forge’s compliance guarantees apply at the platform layer
- Proven performance. Our AWS backend continues to power fast, scalable analytics
- Serverless scalability. Forge’s serverless model handles traffic spikes automatically
What’s changing for users
The migration is designed to be as easy as possible. The core Viewtracker experience — tracking page views, generating reports, and accessing analytics — remains unchanged. There is one notable difference in the UI:
| Area | Connect (current) | Forge Remote (new) |
|---|---|---|
| Content Report on Confluence pages & blog posts | Previous display format | Updated layout due to Forge technical constraints |
| Data hosting | AWS backend | AWS backend (unchanged) |
| Security model | Connect framework | Forge zero-trust + built-in auth |
| Platform badge | — | No “Runs on Atlassian” (data egress) |
Content Report display: Due to technical constraints in the Forge framework, the Content Report displayed on Confluence pages and blog posts now has a new visual layout. Read more here.
Our commitment to transparency
We believe you deserve a clear picture of how your data is handled. Forge Remote is the right architecture for Viewtracker today. It provides a stronger platform security without compromising the performance of our analytics product. As Atlassian’s Forge Storage matures, we’ll continue to evaluate whether a fully native Forge approach becomes viable for our use case.
Questions about the migration or data handling? Reach out to our support team. We’re happy to walk through the details.