Confluence is an enterprise wiki software. Written in Java

Java (programming language)

Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...

 and mainly used in corporate environments, Confluence is developed and marketed by Atlassian

Atlassian

Atlassian is a software company based in Sydney, Australia which makes business enterprise software, targeted at software developers. On 1 September 2010, the World Economic Forum announced the company as a Technology Pioneer for 2011.- Products :...

. Confluence is sold as either on-premises software or as a hosted solution

Software as a Service

Software as a service , sometimes referred to as "on-demand software," is a software delivery model in which software and its associated data are hosted centrally and are typically accessed by users using a thin client, normally using a web browser over the Internet.SaaS has become a common...

. Its license is proprietary, but a zero-cost license program is available for non-profit organizations and open source projects.

Confluence is used by over 10,700 organizations in more than 108 countries. Notable customers include Adobe Systems

Adobe Systems

Adobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California, United States...

, Bloomberg LP, Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...

, IBM

IBM

International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

, Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University

The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

, SAP AG

SAP AG

SAP AG is a German software corporation that makes enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations. Headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, with regional offices around the world, SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software...

, Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...

, United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

 and Weill Cornell Medical College.

History

Confluence 1.0 was released on March 25, 2004. The stated purpose of Confluence 1.0 was "to build an application that was built to the requirements of an enterprise knowledge management system, without losing the essential, powerful simplicity of the wiki

Wiki

A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...

 in the process."
In recent versions, Confluence has evolved into part of an integrated collaboration platform

Collaboration platform

An emerging category of computer software, collaboration platforms are unified electronic platforms that support synchronous and asynchronous communication through a variety of devices and channels....

. Confluence has been adapted to work in conjunction with other Atlassian software products: JIRA

JIRA

Jira may refer to:* JIRA, software-engineering package* Journal of Iranian Research and Analysis* Jira, also known as Zilla, fictional character* Jira * Jira...

, FishEye, Clover, Crucible

Crucible (software)

Crucible is a collaborative code review application by Australian software company Atlassian. Like other Atlassian products, Crucible is a Web-based application primarily aimed at the enterprise, and certain features that enable peer review of a codebase may be considered enterprise social...

, Bamboo

Bamboo (software)

Bamboo is a continuous integration server from Atlassian, the makers of JIRA, Confluence and Crowd.Bamboo is free for philanthropic and open-source projects. Commercial organizations are charged based on the number of build agents needed...

 and Crowd.

Features

Atlassian states that the main features and use cases of Confluence are as follows:

• Serving as an intranet
  Intranet
  An intranet is a computer network that uses Internet Protocol technology to securely share any part of an organization's information or network operating system within that organization. The term is used in contrast to internet, a network between organizations, and instead refers to a network...
  
  
• Documentation
  Documentation
  Documentation is a term used in several different ways. Generally, documentation refers to the process of providing evidence.Modules of Documentation are Helpful...
  
   platform to publish, organise, search and maintain documents
• As a knowledge management
  Knowledge management
  Knowledge management comprises a range of strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences...
  
   tool create, share, comment and edit content
• It integrates with SharePoint
  Microsoft SharePoint
  Microsoft SharePoint is a web application platform developed by Microsoft. First launched in 2001, SharePoint is typically associated with web content management and document management systems, but it is actually a much broader platform of web technologies, capable of being configured into a wide...
  
   and Microsoft Office
  Microsoft Office
  Microsoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
  
   documents are searchable, viewable and editable
• Confluence is extensible, with over 400 plugins available

Awards

In 2008 ReadWriteWeb

ReadWriteWeb

ReadWriteWeb is a Web technology blog launched in 2003. RWW covers Web 2.0 and Web technology in general, and provides industry news, reviews, and analysis. Founded by Richard MacManus, Technorati ranked ReadWriteWeb at number 12 in its list of top 100 blogs worldwide, as of October 9, 2010. RWW...

 named Confluence as one of the "Top 10 Enterprise Web Products of 2008".

See also

• Atlassian Seraph
  Atlassian Seraph
  Seraph is a very simple, pluggable J2EE web application security framework. It is developed and maintained primarily by Atlassian, who use it in their JIRA and Confluence products. It is licensed with a simple 'Open' licence from Atlassian....
  
  
• Comparison of wiki software
  Comparison of wiki software
  The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of wiki software packages.-General information:-Target audience:-Features 1:-Features 2:-Installation:-See also:* List of wiki software* List of wikis* Wiki farm...
  
  
• List of applications with iCalendar support
• List of content management systems
• List of wiki software