Jira Granular Backup as a practical step toward smarter Jira Cloud protection

[#1]

Backup is one of the key necessities when it comes to data protection. According to Gartner’s predictions, 75% of enterprises will prioritize SaaS application backups by 2028. 

Though we shouldn’t forget about compliance… Protocols such as NIS 2, DORA, or ISO 27001, and many others require organizations to have backup and restore mechanisms. In some cases, auditors can ask for proof that you can restore your data and how much time you may need to restore your data. 

However, not all data needs to be backed up with the same schedule. For some data, it’s enough to have a daily backup, but for some data, backups should be done every 3 or 4 hours due to its criticality. What to do in this case?

Three words - Jira Granular Backup!

Rather than replacing full Jira backups, which are critical for Disaster Recovery, Jira Granular Backup complements them. It introduces a more precise, configurable way to protect Jira Cloud data, designed for admins and DevOps teams who want better control, shorter recovery windows, and fewer operational compromises.

What “granular” really means for Jira backups

Granular backup focuses on selectivity. Instead of backing up an entire Jira site every time, teams can define exactly what should be protected and how often.

Space-level protection

At the highest level, backups can be scoped to Jira spaces:

• Protect all spaces or only selected ones
• Automatically include spaces based on name, key, or type

This approach is particularly useful in large Jira environments where only a subset of spaces are business-critical.

Work-item-level control

Within selected spaces, protection can go deeper. Teams can choose specific Jira elements to include, such as:

• Work items
• Boards
• Project Roles
• Components and versions
• Notification schemes
• Automation rules
• Assets

This level of control allows backups to focus on operationally important data while excluding elements that don’t require frequent protection.

Improving Recovery Point Objectives (RPO)

Full Jira backups remain essential, but they’re not always enough on their own… especially when strict RPOs are involved. Large, full-site backups can take longer to run, which limits how frequently they can be executed.

Granular backups solve this by enabling:

• More frequent backups of critical spaces
• Shorter backup windows
• Reduced data loss in disruption scenarios

For example, if an organization defines an RPO of four hours, granular backups make it realistic to meet that target for high-value Jira data without the overhead of backing up the entire site multiple times per day.

Supporting site consolidation and site splits

Jira environments tend to grow organically, and restructuring them later can be challenging. Granular backup introduces a safer, more predictable approach to these scenarios.

• Site consolidation: Selected spaces from multiple Jira sites can be backed up and restored into a single target site as new spaces.
• Site splitting: Large Jira sites can be divided by backing up only the spaces that need to move and restoring them into new sites.

In both cases, backups act as a controlled migration mechanism rather than a simple recovery tool.

Merging spaces without manual rework

Operational complexity often arises when teams try to merge Jira spaces that use different configurations, workflows, or boards. Granular backup enables work items from multiple spaces to be restored into a single space without requiring manual recreation or extensive cleanup.

This reduces administrative effort and lowers the risk of configuration errors during restructuring.

Safer change and configuration management

Granular backups also support safer Jira administration practices:

1. Use full disaster recovery backups to spin up sandbox environments.
2. Test changes, new workflows, or automations.
3. Restore only the modified or approved items back into production using granular backup.

This separation between testing and production can help teams manage change in a controlled, predictable way, especially in regulated or high-availability environments.

A more flexible backup strategy for Jira Cloud

Jira Granular Backup doesn’t eliminate the need for full backups, essential for Disaster Recovery. Instead, it adds a missing layer: precision. By allowing teams to protect critical data more frequently and with greater control, it supports stronger resilience, better compliance outcomes, and more realistic recovery objectives.

For Jira admins and DevOps teams, the takeaway is simple: modern Jira environments benefit from backup strategies that reflect how the platform is actually used, not just how it can be restored in a worst-case scenario.

Try GitProtect granular backup and full backups for Disaster Recovery on Atlassian Marketplace 👉 GitProtect for Jira Cloud