Automation for Jira will be included in Jira Data Center

[#1]

Hello!  I'm Olga - a Product Manager working on Jira Data Center here at Atlassian! 

We are excited to share that Automation for Jira (A4J) will be included as native functionality in Jira Software Data Center and Jira Service Management Data Center in a to-be-determined release coming before June 30, 2022. At the time of the release, the Automation for Jira app for Data Center will become a free marketplace app, meaning as long as you are on a supported Jira Data Center license you can leverage the app for free until you upgrade to a future release where it is included natively.

Benefits of Automation for Jira

The Automation for Jira marketplace app is a powerful no-code automation engine that allows customers to automate and extend Jira’s capabilities. It supports thousands of use cases, such as synchronizing parent and sub-tasks, smart auto-assigning, tracking SLAs, the ability to act on linked issues, and more. Automation also supports more advanced processes like approval workflows or defect management. Automation can even support communication between separate instances and integrate with other tools using available webhooks based triggers.

In short, Automation for Jira empowers end-users to automate mundane tasks safely and enables easier management for admins at scale.

Automation makes teams more autonomous

We understand it may not always seem feasible to customize workflows for every team separately. Instead, it can be easier to create standardized templates that all teams follow, not allowing granular changes or unique inputs.

Automation for Jira is a game-changer enabling teams to be more autonomous, by providing an opportunity to customise their process and workflows. With our simple rule builder, Project Admins can configure powerful automation rules to handle even the most complex scenarios and boost team efficiency.

Built-in automation is easier to manage

We know that automation can generate large traffic loads for an instance. It requires your attention to build proper processes and rules that scale - to achieve powerful solutions but also satisfying performance and stability. On the product side, we’re constantly improving diagnostics and performance related to Automation for Jira. Learn more about detailed audit logs and other build-in solutions that allow you to achieve stable performance.

Benefits of automation at scale

Benefit	Examples of automation capabilities
Improve workflows by adding global automation	synchronize parent and sub-tasks auto link related issues auto-assign Jira issues for distributed teams identify SLA breaches issue creation from one instance to another one
Empower teams to create their own rules	smart auto-assign auto-create subtasks
Keep your boards and instance clean	close duplicate Jira issues delete old issues delete issue links delete comments delete attachments from old issues move issues between instances

Deprecation of Automation for Jira Server application in the marketplace

With the inclusion of Automation for Jira in Data Center, and the A4J DC app becoming zero-dollar we will be delisting Automation for the Jira Server app from the marketplace on June 30, 2022. We will continue to support customers with an active license and maintain the Automation for Jira Server app within the bounds of the Server EoL policy (Feb 15, 2024).

What does it mean for Server customers?

• After June 30th, 2022 you will not be able to purchase or request a quote for this app anymore. If you’d like to leverage Jira’s automation capabilities, we recommend migrating to either Cloud or Data Center.

• If you have an existing license of Automation for Jira Server you can continue to renew support and maintenance for these apps until the end of the support date.

As always, thank you for your support and feedback! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

[David Berclaz]

That's great news indeed! Thanks!

[Hana Kučerová]

Fantastic! This is something I really appreciate!

[Stefan Salzl]

Awesome news 🎉🥳

Thanks!

[Fabio Vintorin]

OMG Awesome!! 😍

[Manuel]

Very great news! We use this function often and it works good!

But, we just paid the renewal for the addon some days ago. Do we get a refund?

[Gezim Shehu]

Great news! Definitely the right move.

[Melo]

That's terrific! 🙌

[Steph]

@Manuel Would you mind filing a ticket with our customer advocate team here? Most customers who have renewed recently were charged a pro-rated amount due to our team knowing that this announcement was coming, so we need to assess whether that was the case for your particular renewal. 

[Gisela Lassahn]

We are on Jira DC 8.20.3 and just wanted to buy Automation for Jira. At the moment we use Automation for Jira, version 7.4.2, with a trial license.
In the Manage Apps section I can see "Your trial is expiring on 07.06.2022. Buy a license ($3000 / year) for this app.". 
Fortuitously I've just read this article. Now I'm asking myself what we should do now?
Can we extend the trial license once more and then use the app without buying it?
What have we got to do to get the app for free? Do we have to upgrade Jira DC and/or Automation for Jira?

And what about the features of "Automation for Jira" which are included in the cloud version but not in the DC version? Will they be available for Jira DC as well, and if so, when?

[Utkarsh Agarwal]

Looks like there is a delay in this.

[Gisela Lassahn]

@Olga Springer :
Hi!
Could you please answer my questions from May 25, 2022?
Thank you! :-)

[kdickason]

@Utkarsh Agarwal Can you provide information on the delay?  

[Gisela Lassahn]

@kdickason : I think he is talking about my questions from May 25 which still are not answered...

[Olga Springer]

Hey @Gisela Lassahn 

Automation for Jira Data Center will become 0$ app for all customers by the end of June. We’re currently offering pro-rated pricing for A4J to prevent customers from overpaying for the application. That means, you can purchase your licence before your trial expires and the charge will be significantly decreased. In the future licence renewals for Automation for Jira DC will no longer be required - your Automation for Jira Marketplace app will be automatically upgraded when you upgrade your Jira Software.

Automation for Jira DC doesn’t include all functionalities that Cloud Automation currently offers. If there are any specific features that would be the most beneficial for you, please share within a comment or contact me directly: ospringer@atlassian.com

[Martin Cleaver]

Further to my questions from the DC AMA on May 25 and originating on https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Data-Center-articles/The-Future-of-Atlassian-Data-Center/bc-p/2036340#M374 

I'm really happy to see Automation becoming a native capability in DC. Atlassian providing a de facto platform standardizes the approach, paving the way for those wanting to move their instances from DC to get to Cloud.

Features... so will we see parity? It is essential to have smart values on DC. Also, processing 4XX web request replies is very painful. Both of these have existed on Cloud for more than 6 months, but DC releases have been few and far between..

Having worked in Automation for a long while, I understand that a tremendous variety of scenarios are possible. Still, I assert that no-code platforms have limits. No-code Automation platforms such as Zapier provide the means drop into code in your choice of language in a Functions-as-a-Service system such as AWS Lambda. 

I would think Atlassian's value proposition would be stronger by supporting an official code container. Given the commitment to Kubernetes, providing one could be reasonable.  Supporting Python and Node.js would be awesome, as would Groovy and having plug-in run-times, such as SIL. These could accept webhook REST calls with optional callbacks for long-running asynchronous processing, paving a path to something akin to Forge. 

Thanks,

   Martin. 

[Upasna Bassi]

What happens to Automation installation on server installation? Will the automation become free in marketplace for all kinds of hosting offerings?

[Olga Springer]

Hey, @Martin Cleaver I appreciate the detailed feedback. I will share it with the team!

@Upasna Bassi With the inclusion of Automation for Jira in Data Center, and the A4J DC app becoming zero-dollar we will be delisting Automation for the Jira Server app from the marketplace on June 30, 2022. We will continue to support customers with an active license and maintain the Automation for Jira Server app within the bounds of the Server EoL policy (Feb 15, 2024).

What does it mean for Server customers?

• After June 30th, 2022 you will not be able to purchase or request a quote for this app anymore. If you’d like to leverage Jira’s automation capabilities, we recommend migrating to either Cloud or Data Center.

• If you have an existing license of Automation for Jira Server you can continue to renew support and maintenance for these apps until the end of the support date.

[Gisela Lassahn]

Hi @Olga Springer ,

regarding to your comment of Jun 01, 2022, I've collected some feedback from my colleagues in the last weeks and found out that the most important functionalities we are missing in the DC version (in comparison to the cloud version) are these:

1. the whole "Look up issues" functionality described here: Lookup Issues New Fields (atlassian.com)
2. (as soon as we succeed to connect Bitbucket with Jira:) all the "DevOps triggers":
   Branch created, Build failed, Build status changed, Build successful, Commit created, Deployment failed, Deployment status changed, Deployment successful, Pull request created, Pull request declined, Pull request merged, ...?

We (and probably many other clients who cannot migrate to the cloud for various reasons) would be very grateful to have these functionalities within the DC version as soon as possible.

[Will Rash]

@Olga Springer what will be the base version of jira that will need to be installed to have A4J included automatically?

[Olga Springer]

@Will Rash Good news - Jira Software 9.0 & Jira Service Management 5.0 were released yesterday with bundled automation (included as a native functionality).

Additionally, Automation for Jira Data Center is available now on the marketplace as a free app, so all customers can utilise it.

@Gisela Lassahn Thank you for the detailed feedback. I will share it with the whole team!

[Martin Cleaver]

Well it's good to see 8.0 and 8.0.2 in Automation for Jira release notes | Automation for Jira Data Center and Server 8.0 | Atlassian Documentation updated to mention 9.0  Automation for Jira - Data Center and Server - Version history | Atlassian Marketplace

@Olga Springer when do you expect a reply from the team re: feature catchup for DC? And what can we expect in terms of parity?

Thanks,

   Martin.

[Priti Sonar]

Hi @Olga Springer 

We have hosted jira on server and we need this app , Could you please let me know how i raise quote before 30th june and purchase it afterwards , so after 30th june(after deprecating) we will be able to buy it 

[Olga Springer]

@Priti Sonar Feel free to install the app and raise a quote today. From tomorrow, it won’t be possible to raise the quote anymore. If you raise the request for a quote today, you will be able to pay till the quote is valid.

[Bhanu]

Great news! Thank you so much for the detailed information on this. It is really helpful to gain insight into the add-on as well as app maintenance.

[Guney Mustafayeva]

Amazing news, our user community is extremely happy about this! 🎉 🥳