How to Collaborate Across Jira Instances Without Duplicating Work or Sharing Access

[Umer Sohail _K15t_]

Note: This guide was jointly written with @Marlene Kegel - codefortynine.

We're taking the example of a fictional company, Good Software in this guide. Let's assume Good Software builds software for several clients. Each client has their own Jira setup, their own workflows, and their own expectations for visibility and cadence of communication. Meanwhile, Good Software’s developers need to stay focused on their own work in the internal Jira instance - not re-creating work items or checking multiple places just to understand what they should work on next.

Giving clients access to internal spaces isn’t an option either. It would expose sensitive internal information, create security risks, and increase licensing costs. At the same time, clients need transparency. They wanted to see progress, comment on work, and stay updated without waiting for status meetings or manually prepared reports.

The result - a classic collaboration bottleneck:
Two sides working in separate Jira instances, both needing up-to-date information, but neither was able to access the other’s system directly.

Manually sending updates back and forth wasn’t going to cut it. It takes too much time, and information gets outdated quickly.

Their goals were simple:

• Developers work only in the internal Jira.
• Clients stay in their own Jira.
• Both sides see the same information.
• No duplicate work, no extra logins.

That’s when they came up with the following workflow with the help of Deep Clone for Jira and Backbone Work Sync for Jira.

Step 1: Build a Template Space With Deep Clone

The team created an internal space with a set of work items, to create an initial template.

Then the team used Deep Clone to clone the space - including work items, boards, and other configurations - to create a new space to work in. Here are the steps followed:

1. Apps → Deep Clone
2. Space Clone
3. Choose the template
4. Enter the new space key and name

This one-time step offered a way to create a consistent starting point for every client. 

Step 2: Clone the Space to the Client’s Instance

Next, they wanted to use an Instance Clone to copy the “Wise Development” space configuration to the client’s Jira instance. It only required a quick setup between both Jira admins.

Once connected, they cloned the “Wise Development” space into the client’s instance.

Step 3: Clone and Keep Work Items Updated With Backbone Work Sync

The work items that already exist in the “Wise Development” space also need to be kept in sync. 

To clone the work items and the Jira data, they started a new Backbone synchronization. Although Deep Clone for Jira could be used as well for the initial cloning.

• Choose the internal cloned space as the source
• Enter the client’s Jira URL and space key
• Send the sync request

Once the client accepted, Backbone automatically copied the work items and prepared them for ongoing synchronization.

Step 4: Confirm Mappings and Start Syncing

They mapped the work item types, fields, and workflow statuses in the Backbone configuration, enabled two-way sync for comments and attachments, and turned it on.

Step 5: Work Seamlessly Across Both Jira Instances

Now everything runs automatically:

• Developers work only in their internal Jira
• Clients see updates in their own instance
• Statuses, comments, attachments - all synced
• No duplicate work, no switching contexts

Both teams get transparency without opening internal systems or juggling credentials.

A Smarter Way to Collaborate Across Instances

By combining Deep Clone and Backbone, Good Software can:

• Spin up new client spaces quickly
• Mirror space structures across instances
• Keep both sides aligned in real time
• Avoid switching between systems or granting extra access

It’s simple, secure, and scales easily as the client list grows.

Want to dive deeper into Deep Clone’s cloning capabilities? Explore the full feature set →

For additional guidance, reach out to the codefortynine support team →

Want to see how Backbone Work Sync supports cross-instance collaboration? Learn more here →

Or book a demo with our Product Manager →

Note: This guide was jointly written with Marlene Kegel from codefortynine.

[Charlie Misonne]

Syncing Jira work items between Jira instances or even to other systems tracking work is very useful indeed.

I haven't had many use-cases in my carreer so far but I did the implementation for a couple of businesses. Once the setup is fine-tuned and works as expected it's surely improves collaboration!

[Marlene Kegel - codefortynine]

I’m curious how you see this evolving. With Data Center nearing its end of life and Atlassian clearly focusing on Cloud, do you think cross-instance collaboration will become more common?

Another use case that comes to mind is larger enterprises increasingly working with multiple Jira instances instead of one large one - driven by security or organizational needs. Does that align with what you’ve seen?

[Charlie Misonne]

On Data Center I remember a case where we could not setup a sync because of network restrictions.
With Cloud this is different and might allow more cases.

I'm personally working in an environment with 1 DC instance and 8 Cloud instances.
For most of them there is no need for a sync or any integrations.

A couple of teams do work in more than 1 instance because they support other teams in their activities. For those a sync would definitely be interesting. Especially to create 1 common report for time entries.