Explore how Jira Cloud differs from Data Center
Discover what’s new in Jira Cloud. Learn how navigation, work item views, and space management differ from Data Center.General user interface and navigation
We designed the Cloud platform to be more intuitive for all of your users – not just developers. We’ve found that the changes made to the core experiences are easier for users to navigate independently.
Cloud has a different sidebar and horizontal navigation from Data Center. You’ll see the same main navigation bar across all Jira Cloud apps. This gives you quick access to the spaces (previously called ‘projects’), filters, and dashboards you use most. It also lets you create work items (previously called issues), search and chat using Rovo, and access help notifications and global Jira settings.
Use the diagram below to familiarize yourself with the navigation bar for all Jira Cloud apps:
NOTE: Depending on the Jira app and app version, the navigation bar options may vary slightly.
- App switcher: Switch between Atlassian and third-party apps, like Confluence, Talent, and Miro, or go to other sites.
- Jira logo: Keep track of which Atlassian app you're in as you switch between apps. Use this logo to navigate back to your homepage from any page.
- For you: Get an overview of the things you care most about in Jira. Find work items, spaces, boards, and queues you’ve visited, work assigned to you, and your starred items.
- Spaces, Filters, Dashboards, and more: Quickly find and resume work on the things you use most. Your starred items appear at the top of each menu, followed by your recently visited items.
- Teams: See the people and teams you work with, and create new teams.
- Apps: See and manage marketplace apps installed on your Jira site.
- Search: Find work items, spaces, boards, queues, filters, and people. If enabled, paid editions get AI-powered, cross-app search with Rovo.
- Create: Create work items easily from anywhere in Jira.
- Rovo Chat: Ask questions and explore your company’s knowledge through an AI-powered chat interface. Rovo chat is available on paid editions and must be enabled by admins.
- Notifications, Help, Settings, and your profile: See what's happening in Jira, get help, and customize Jira’s settings (Jira admins only) and your personal settings.
Where did the work items dropdown go?
You’ll most likely notice that Cloud doesn’t have a dropdown for work items. Instead, your recent activity will appear in the ‘For you’ section on the sidebar. Filters are now a separate menu item and work items can be accessed from the sidebar.
Key changes to board view
The space board and backlog views are very similar for both the Scrum and Kanban spaces. In Cloud, there’s a 5,000 work item limit per board, and you can view sprint insights to stay on top of progress made and deliver with confidence.
Sprint view
Cloud
Data Center
Kanban view
Cloud
Data Center
Backlog view
Cloud
Data Center
Key changes to work item view
Jira Cloud has a new work item view that groups key actions and information in a more logical way, making it easier for you to scan and update your work items. It usually appears as a 2-column layout on boards and as a single column in the backlog, but is responsive to the size of your window.
- Quick-add button: Add attachments, subtasks (company-managed spaces), or child work items (team-managed spaces); link to work items, URLs, and content from Atlassian Marketplace apps.
- Transition work item: Update a status, view workflow steps, or take other work item actions by selecting the down arrows (⌄).
- Watch, Vote, and More actions: Watch, vote, and give feedback, and perform other actions like move and clone via the ‘More actions •••’ menu.
- Flexible layout: View and update information by organizing your work items, including the Development panel linking to development tools like Bitbucket (if connected by your admin). Fields can be placed where they work best for you. On the right side menu, pin your most important and frequently used fields to the top, including the ones under the ‘Show more’ fields link. To do so, hover over the bold name of the field and select ‘Pin to top’.
- More fields: Select the down arrow (⌄) to view all work item fields.
- Automations: Select the down arrow (⌄) to view Automation rules that have recently run.
- Configure work item layout: Move, hide, and change fields in the work item view for individual spaces.
- Activity and docked Comments bar: Add notes, updates, or questions in the Comments bar. Tag your teammates to notify them or restrict the comment on a public work item.
- Attachments: Switch between the list and strip view for attachments, or download them all at once to work with them on your device.
TIP: Share the Jira Cloud quick start guide with your users so they can easily reference the changes outlined above.
New ways to manage Jira spaces
While spaces are managed at the company level in Data Center, you have the option in Cloud to manage spaces at either the company or the team level. The core functionality of these space types is the same, but it can be helpful to know which type of space your team is working in if you’re looking for certain configurations.
Team-managed spaces offer a powerful yet simpler configuration that's independent of other spaces on the cloud instance. Anyone on the team can create a team-managed space and serve as the space admin. Space admins administer and have total control over the configuration of their team-managed spaces. This includes configuring workflows, custom fields, work item types, permissions, and more without having to contact the Jira app or site admin. With company-managed spaces, the Jira app admin is responsible for making these types of configuration changes.
TIP: Jira admins can configure and control space settings by going to Jira Settings > System > Global Permissions.
Team-managed space | Company-managed space | |
|---|---|---|
Default | Default space type | Can be enabled by an admin |
Overview | Simplified configuration that is independent of other spaces. Settings and changes in team-managed spaces can be made by the space admin and are contained; they won’t impact other spaces on the same instance. | Expert configuration with greater complexity and flexibility, but also the ability to standardize workflows across spaces. When a Jira admin changes a scheme or screen, every company-managed space using that configuration changes accordingly. |
Configuration | ||
Features | Essential | Advanced |
When to use |
Popular new features in Jira Cloud
One of the most common reasons customers cite when deciding to move to Cloud is to have access to the latest and greatest features in Atlassian apps. We're continuously releasing new value and innovation for you and your teams, and you can see a curated list of some of our most popular new Jira Cloud features in this section.
Automations
Jira Cloud’s native automation engine has powerful features that are exclusive to Cloud and not available for Data Center, namely:
- The ability to run rules as another user
- Unique triggers
In Jira Cloud, advanced triggers and automation functionality are included out of the box. Learn more about automating your processes and workflows.
Plans (included with Cloud Premium and Enterprise plans)
Plans (formerly known as Advanced Roadmaps), which you may have been using as an app with your Data Center instance, is available out-of-the-box with all Cloud Premium and Enterprise plans. Plans are available for company and team-managed spaces.
Cloud
Data Center
NOTE: Plans can include work items from all Jira space types.
The Cloud version of Plans doesn’t include the ability to create Programs, i.e. group of plans, which is available on Data Center. However, in most cases, a Program can be duplicated through custom hierarchy levels for Plans. Learn how to get started with advanced planning.
Basic roadmaps
For all Cloud plans, you can use the space-specific roadmap. The roadmap enables you to create, manage, and visualize your team's epics. Roadmaps are useful for planning large pieces of work several months in advance and planning large groups of stories across different sprints. While Plans provide the ability for cross-space roadmaps, basic roadmaps are for single spaces.
Space templates
Jira Cloud offers over 40 ready-to-use space templates for many use cases, with more being released regularly. Jira Enterprise plan also offers custom space templates that allow admins to reduce space setup time by reusing settings from existing spaces.
DevOps Insights
If your admin has integrated your CI/CD pipeline with Jira, you can take advantage of DevOps Insight, which includes cycle time and deployment frequency reports and insights to analyze risk and measure how often you are shipping value to your customers.
Better integrations
With Jira Cloud, integrating with other Atlassian apps like Confluence, and third-party tools like MS Teams and your development tools is easier than ever.
AI capabilities
Built-in AI helps you work smarter, faster, and more collaboratively. Instead of spending time on completing manual tasks and updates, Jira AI handles the details so you can focus on impact. Here are a few ways you can start using Jira AI capabilities:
- Work breakdown: Turn high-level ideas into manageable tasks with AI-generated summaries, descriptions, and subtasks.
- Workflow guidance: Use Rovo Agents like the Workflow Builder or Work Readiness Checker to design processes, check task clarity, and ensure spaces stay on track.
- On-demand context: Surface related Jira work items, Confluence pages, and even in-line definitions directly in your workspace, so you always have the right information at hand.
You can learn more about how to use AI in Jira with these resources:
To learn more about differences administered Jira Cloud, see Differences administering Jira Server or Data Center and Cloud | Atlassian Support