The keys to a successful large-scale migration to Jira Cloud with Elements Connect: the case of a European electricity company

A unified data strategy and Elements Connect: the keys to managing the complexity of migrating 800+ projects and 5,000+ users

The challenge

Migrating from Jira Server to Cloud is no small task—especially when managing more than 800 projects and 5,000 users in a highly regulated industry like energy.

For this major European electricity provider, Elements Connect was essential in the migration process, enabling them to simplify and scale external data integration by replacing custom-built solutions with robust, easy-to-maintain connections.

A mission-critical migration project

The migration of this multinational’s Jira environment to the cloud was one of the most important projects we’ve led at Sngular. With over 32 apps installed on their Server instance, thousands of users, and strict compliance requirements, the stakes were high.

Bryan, Technical Architect at Sngular, led the project from start to finish, ensuring a full modernization without compromising business continuity.

One of the most critical Jira initiatives at this company is the global demand management project, which collects and organizes all application development and modification requests. But Jira goes beyond project management—it supports workflows across marketing, sales, HR, and development, making it the backbone of their digital operations.

Consolidation and simplification

The migration from Server to Cloud lasted nearly 12 months and involved a true rationalization: they went from 32 apps down to just 9 on Cloud.

This consolidation was strategic, focusing on security, performance, and scalability. Custom-built solutions were replaced with robust apps offering out-of-the-box support for complex use cases, with simpler maintenance and better Jira integration.

Elements Connect stood out as one of the most impactful tools.

For us, Elements Connect is the most important and useful app to connect external data sources.

— Bryan Alexis Perdomo Arévalo | Technical Architect at Sngular

Two key use cases with Elements Connect

1. Seamless SQL integration

The first challenge was integrating Jira with a legacy SQL database. At first glance, it might seem like a basic connection, but for this global energy player, it was crucial to streamline how information was surfaced throughout their workflows.

With Elements Connect, the company configured dynamic Jira fields that display live data from the SQL database, ensuring teams always have access to up-to-date information without duplicating data or needing manual updates.

This setup significantly reduces maintenance, simplifies reporting, and ensures a single source of truth for critical data.

2. Component management via API

The second, more complex challenge was managing global components that represent different internal teams. These components needed to be dynamically populated into Jira fields and be available across multiple screens and workflow steps.

How did Elements Connect help?

• Two custom fields were created, each connected to a single API endpoint.

• Each API returned a structured list of components specific to each project or team.

• These fields were displayed in various workflow transitions and screens, providing real-time contextual data throughout the process.

This solution gave project administrators more flexibility, enabling them to update component lists independently, without relying on the platform team or risking inconsistencies in data sources.

We wanted to avoid high-maintenance in our instance. Using a single API as the source of truth has greatly simplified the system.

— Team member at the multinational utility company

Reducing administrative overhead

One of the company’s main goals was to reduce the administrative burden in Jira while preserving team autonomy.

Before implementing Elements Connect, updating components required modifying several data sources—a time-consuming and error-prone process. Now, with centralized control via a single API, changes automatically propagate across all relevant projects.

This architecture also ensures sensitive data remains secure and compliant with internal policies, which is essential in the regulatory environment this major utility company operates in.

Overcoming technical and performance challenges

As with any large-scale migration, there were challenges. The two main ones:

• Security concerns when accessing external data under strict privacy policies

• Performance delays when rendering dynamic field values via API, especially with complex datasets

Thanks to the close collaboration between Sngular and the Elements Connect support team, both issues were resolved within a few months. The app was optimized for large-scale use, and the security settings were fine-tuned to meet company standards.

The support experience was really helpful.

— Bryan, Technical Architect at Sngular

Migrating custom fields with Python automation

Before adopting Elements Connect, the company used custom apps to integrate external data into Jira. To ensure continuity and avoid data loss during the migration, Bryan’s team developed a Python script that mapped and migrated all values from the old custom fields into newly created Elements Connect custom fields in Cloud.

This automation helped reduce manual work and minimize downtime.

Why Elements Connect?

In Bryan’s view, Elements Connect wasn’t just a plugin, it was a core enabler of the migration. By centralizing data sources, reducing maintenance, and empowering local project administrators, the app played a critical role in simplifying the architecture of the company’s Jira Cloud instance.

Benefits delivered:

• Better Jira Integration, thanks to Elements Connect ability to be fully compatible with Jira native functionalities

• Faster maintenance handled by a Jira specialist team via centralized APIs and simplified field configuration.

• Improved scalability by empowering local admins to manage data.

• Compliance-ready setup, designed for the highest security standards in highly regulated industries.

• No tools switching, by accessing live external data without any manual actions and from a single source of truth

A successful partnership between Sngular and Elements

The success of this migration is also thanks to the strong and long-standing partnership between Sngular and Elements. Thanks to Elements apps, our in-depth knowledge of them, and our experience with the Atlassian ecosystem, we provide tailored implementations and support for complex enterprise environments.

This collaboration ensures that our clients gain the maximum value from Elements solutions and achieve successful digital transformations.

Looking ahead

With the migration completed, the energy company and Sngular are now evaluating how to expand the use of Elements Connect across other areas of the organization.

Given the app’s flexibility, they are exploring new API-based integrations and advanced field configurations to further streamline cross-functional workflows.