Considerations when upgrading Jira - Enterprise version?

[Gary Pasquale]

Hi all,

I'd like to get a feel for how other's decide what version to move to when upgrading Jira (or other Atlassian apps for that matter)?

Atlassian has recently introduced 'enterprise versions'. 7.6 is the current enterprise version for Jira Software.

We're currently on version 7.5.3 and would love to move to the very latest version (7.11) to get all the latest features/improvements. But we are reluctant to do so after bad experiences in the past of introducing critical performance bugs.

Atlassian's advice is to stick to the enterprise versions as they are supported with bug fixes for longer.

We have a large Jira instance with >1.4m issues and 11k+ users.

What do others in the community do? Stick with enterprise versions only or keep upgrading to the latest version? Or something in-between?

Thanks,

Gary

[Walter Buggenhout]

Interesting topic, @Gary Pasquale!

Enterprise releases are quite new, so I am also interested to see other peoples' opinion on this. The goal of enterprise releases - as I have captured it - was to grant a solid and stable version for organisations that want to avoid the hassle of upgrading multiple times each year. I think it's important to assess what your company and process allows for, to some extent.

With new versions, new features are released. And if one of those features is just the one thing that has been blocking your organisation for quite some time and delivers great value, it might be worth moving to that version anyway. My two cents.

[Gary Pasquale]

Thanks, @Walter Buggenhout. I guess that's the conundrum. Everybody wants both a solid and stable version and all the latest features. Seems like you can't have both:)

At the moment we're upgrading annually (but will start to increase the frequency). Moving from 7.53 to 7.6 may not be worth it. I'm hoping Atlassian name the next enterprise version in the very near future.

[Foucault Dupleix]

Hello Gary,

We are having the same question currently. Features delivered in both Jira and Confluence last releases are quite interesting, but we don't want to do an upgrade if next release is an Entreprise one... 

For the moment, last Jira version is 7.12.1 (Released on sept 05), but it's not an Entreprise version : 

https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirasoftware/jira-software-release-notes-776821069.html

What did you finally decide ? 

[Gary Pasquale]

Hi @Foucault Dupleix,

We decided to move to the current enterprise version: 7.6.8.

We've introduced some quite serious bugs previously when upgrading to the latest version of Jira.

We need stability while we migrate from server to data centre (hosted in AWS).

7.6.8 gives us the best chance.

Let others find the bug's on the very latest versions :)

[Rodrigo Cortez]

You may want to check @Jessica Seitz post Upcoming Enterprise releases targeting Q3 2019: Jira Software 8.5 & Jira Service Desk 4.5

Jira 8.5 will soon to be released and it is the new Jira Enterprise Release.