Multiple corporate instances of Jira - segmented by business but integrated by project when needed?

[Lisa Davis]

Has anyone been able to set up multiple, independent instances of Jira within a corporate firewall, and if so, what are the challenges in doing so? Additionally, is it possible to get those independent instances to integrate at some level, when projects force the need for that integration?

I know this question is counterintuitive given that Jira is meant to provide issue tracking across the enterprise, but we are in a situation that requires asking about the limitations of segementing Jira within the same organization, and then allowing cross communication between those segments when it's necessary. We have several internal business segments that follow different work-flow processes and general protocols based on thier individual needs. The challenge we are now having is that projects within those business segments are forcing us to cross segment boundaries we've never crossed before, and I want to know if Jira can handle disperate workflows until we are able to function as one true enterprise level IT organization.

Many thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions!

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

>what are the challenges in doing so

Searching across instances, and getting users to use the right Jira, as they're all on different urls. You've run into exactly the reasons many larger organisations are saying "Jira is not an Enterprise system" - it doesn't scale when there's a huge number of issues, and the official line from Atlassian is "split it up", which then means you end up with separate instances which have no real interaction. Which isn't what is needed.

There's a bit more here: https://answers.atlassian.com/questions/22592/is-your-jira-instance-growing-above-200-000-issues - most importantly, a mention of the Enterprise Product Manager - Atlassian set up a team late last year, dedicated to fixing this perception (which is grounded in significant truth) that Jira isn't for the enterprise.

[Lisa Davis]

Thank you so much for your response Nic! This was exactly what I needed.