How to apply Jira Core and Confluence for my company?

Hung Do_nabkuw

Hi,

I would like to evaluate Jira Core and Confluence (all Cloud) for my company.

We are going to use Jira Core for Marketing and Sales.

The point is I have no idea where to start:

1. What is exactly an instance?
2. Should I setup an instance per department or an instance for whole company?
3. We are in a tight budget so I would like to leverage introductory pricing of Cloud version (10$ / month / up to 10 user). Any recommendations?

Scott Theus

Hi @Hung Do,

I would compare an instance to a single installation of the software. Here is an example to take it out of technology:

I am a woodworker and I make all sorts of things from small boats to carts and cabinets to pens and toys. To accomplish that I have a workshop with all my tools, workbenches, etc. where I make things. Sometimes I also go to another workshop that has larger industrial equipment to work on stuff. 

Each workshop is an "instance" of a place to work on my hobby. Since Jira and Confluence work together, they both exist in my workshop; think of them as workbenches. Addons from the Marketplace would be my tools like a drill press or table saw, and so on, and the things I make are projects or Confluence pages.  

I suggest a single instance for your company, since that will make it easier down the road if you need to link projects together with dependencies or into a program, it will also make it easier for you to manage security across projects by setting up groups, you'll be able to limit the number of screens and fields, and a host of other stuff that would make combining instances into one later (if you decide to go to a server or datacenter instance.)

And...since you are evaluating the product and are on a budget I suggest you limit the users to  only those on your evaluation team, one or two per department perhaps. 

Hope this helps,

-Scott