Confluence as an External and Interal interface

[Deleted user]

We are looking at using a single Confluence server to be an internal and external site. We would split it up by spaces and permissions. Our goal is to have a single tool do both but limit access.

Is this possible and should we do it?

I have seen questions on linking and syncing between internal and external confluence servers but not sharing?

Just curios what others have done and any reason not to do it?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

The most simple solution - have one Confluence, exposed internal and externally, and then handle it all by space permissions. Identify your internal users by adding them to a group and then make sure that your internal spaces can only be used by that group, and not by "everyone who can log in" or "anonymous"

[CharlesH]

Consider whether certain types of data, like status updates and user profiles, are okay to be viewed by everyone using your single instance. These items don't belong to a space or page, so are more difficult to control the visibility of.

[Martin Moser]

We are doing this for a number of years now and have a couple thousand external users and more than 100 spaces. Out of that experience I'd say you will need to get a good process in place in terms of user sign up, and user group and space permissions management.

You also need to educate your internal users about this very thoroughly so that they know where they are posting/adding content (i.e. internally vs. externally).

Linking also can become challenging as you may create dead links for external users by inadvertently linking to internal pages they cannot access. Same is true for usage of macros like metadata, include etc.

At the very least you should prefix your internal spacesin some way to make them instantly recognizeable. Creating and enforcing different page templates for internal spaces or introducing a page header are another option.